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Outreach Consultation
The Howard University Counseling Service
strongly believes in the promotion of mental health and
wellness across the campus and around the world.
We understand that for many of university students,
there is a stigma associated with seeking mental health
treatment; that one is weak, that counseling is only for
depressed and suicidal people and ultimately going to
counseling means that one is crazy. These
stereotypes often serve as barriers to students
receiving mental health treatment.
At the University Counseling Service, the
outreach team, which includes the interns, work hard to
dispel these erroneous ideas. Through utilization of
outreach activities, we are dedicated to educate the
university community in preventive mental health
strategies.
We
attempt, in all of our outreach activities, to reduce
the stigma that is often associated with receiving
services in a counseling facility. Our routinely hosted
activities participation in the following activities:
·
New
Student Orientation.
Each year the interns and the outreach team present a
creative, entertaining and informative programs about
how to make a healthy transition from high school to
college and how to recognize if additional assistance is
needed.
·
Day
and Evening Workshops, presented in classrooms, dormitories, student union, and
other areas where students are. We address concerns
related to stress, adjustment to the university, career
choice and numerous other topics.
·
Primary Prevention Activities,
simultaneously offered with other mental health centers
across the nation during National Depression Screening
Day and National Alcohol Screening Day.
·
Collaborative Services, offered when we join with other campus agencies for program
presentations on various topics.
·
Crisis
Intervention Services, provided
during times of tragedy. These services assist with
restoring victims to pre-crisis equilibrium.
·
Notorious BBP (before break party),
this event is a pre-spring break wellness fair. The
purpose of this fair is to help our students to have a
happy and healthy spring break by arming them with the
necessary resources to make informed decisions during
the break. Another purpose of the party is to make
students aware of wellness resources on campus and in
the community. All of this takes place in an atmosphere
filled with music, food and fun. Events like this help
to remove the stigma of visiting a counseling service.
In the past, interns have worked with the
outreach supervisor to create an outreach training
manual containing information about mental health and
programs can increase help seeking behavior.
The members of the 2007 internship group helped the
outreach supervisor to write a screenplay aimed at
increasing help seeking behaviors in students by
decreasing mental health stigma. The film
entitled, LOST & FOUND: a college story was funded by a
grant from SAMHSA and has been shown to hundreds of
students and mental health professionals across the US.
Dr.
Nickole Scott Conerly
Coordinator
for Outreach Consultation
Phone: (202) 806-6872
E-mail:
ncscott@howard.edu
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