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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 1981)
Page 4B THE BATTALION MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 1981 Personal Counseling Service offers help College life presents many types of problo ,, vAiifv rVrnwKi t A lot of students will talk about ...» . . j.. By KATHY O’CONNELL Battalion Staff Has there ever been a time when nothing goes right? Classes are bogging you down, you feel like your parents don’t care and you’re roomate is driving you up a wall. All you need right now is someone who will listen. If these “I-can’t-take-it any more’’ blues get the better of you then maybe a visit to the Personal Counseling Service can be just what the doctor ordered. The Personal Counseling Ser vice, located in the basement of the YMCA Building, offers Texas A&M University students a varie ty of counseling services ranging from personal to group counsel ing. Counselors at the center are there to help, even if it’s just to listen. PCS Director Dr. Wade G. Birch said, “What we do the most at the PCS is more what we call personal-social counseling. It’s a great big broad area where we talk to students having difficulties with their parents, boyfriend or girl friend, roommate or professor.” Although most of the counsel ing offered deals with general problems occurring in everday life, counselors do get involved in crisis or suicide prevention. Since the center opened in 1974, Birch said there has been a yearly average of 20 Texas A&M students who have attempted suicide. He added that this figure applies only to the students the counseling center knows about, because there are cases the Uni versity Police or the A.P. Beutel Health Center may have on re cord that the PCS doesn’t. He said sometimes a student will make an appointment at the center because they’re feeling de pressed or have even contem plated suicide. “If we suspect that that might be a possibility as a way of solving problems, ” he said, “our staff will ask directly if they (the students) are contemplating suicide. “It’s an old wives tale that you shouldn’t bring something like that up — that it might cause somebody to actually do some thing. Legally, as professionals, we would be remiss in our duties if we had any reason to suspect that someone might be contemplating suicide and we didn’t ask,” Birch said. A lot of students will talk about harming themselves, he said, but there are measures on how to gauge how probable it is that someone will actually commit suicide. Getting concrete answers to the questions why, how and when are good indicators that the person is serious about harming himself. “For instance,” he said, “if a student says,” I’ve got a shot gun, and there’s a barn outside of Col lege Station and sometimes when I drive by I think about killing id “What we do the most at the Personal Counseling Service is more what we call personal-social coun seling, said Dr. Wade Birch, PCS director. myself. If things don’t clear up pretty soon with my girlfriend, I’m going out there,”’ that’s when the problem is serious. When a student has attempted suicide, Birch said, an appoint ment is set up with one of the two consulting psychiatrists who visit the center on a weekly basis. Both are local practicing psychiatrists. On rare occasions, he said, a stu dent who has attempted suicide may have to leave the University for intense counseling. In an attempt not to duplicate the local crisis-hotline, Birch said the PCS uses a 24-hour, on-call system where each of the eight counselors will take turns remain ing on call every weekend during the fall and spring semesters. If they receive a call from a stu dent who is attempting suicide, Birch said they will try to convince the student to go to the health center. Birch said the counselors won’t actually go out and get the stu dent. If it sounds like the student is in such bad shape that he can’t make it there alone, then the counselor will contact the Univer sity Police. “We don’t do police work,” he said. “We don’t want to be seen as police-type of administrative-type people, because the student may pull away from us. We would rather be seen as the benevolent, By KATHY ( Battaii< Hie transition lollege is oftei dents, but on< ;M University The Acade inter, located iilding, provid lividual and g ■eer interest itruction. Dr. Ronald A !C director, sa counseling staff that wor sitional, educ it are typica students ru; ;e environmer iwis said the inly helps i eer decisions, career planr 'o help a stu isions, Lewi; “a very fine it we give tod' jnt’s interests ; Lewis said the the student’s |rds that often 1: iderstand the “•pound. ‘Ifa student caring people.” Birch said as far has he knows there have been no suicide com pletions this year. In addition to the crisis preven tion activities, counselors will see students who are having difficulty adjusting to college life, or who are having family or other person al problems, on a weekly basis . The counseling service is usual ly rendered for the duration of a semester, which is approximately 16 weeks. Birch added that this is not particularly short-term coun seling. There are two reasons for termi nating the counseling after a semester. “First,” Birch said, “when I came to A&M it was made clear to me that what A&M didn’t want in a counseling service was some kind of an in-patient mental health hospital. The feeling was that if the student was that emo tionally distraught he should go outside for help. “The other reason is that we have such a massive demand for counseling that we have a difficult time helping all the students, he said.” for more counseling if necessary. The PCS also keeps a massive library with personal growth and self-help information. He said a few students occasionally stop by to read the literature, but usually it’s a student who is already in volved in counseling. Group counseling is another service offered by the center. Birch said the groups are usually small, and discussion will range from how to be more assertive to how to ask for what you want. The discussions on assertiveness are usually popular with women, Birch said. The center also keeps an up-to- \e have st •ling psyci le staff tha ie normal ucational •at are typ Graphics by Richard DeLej| Mged that l date and comprehensive In to in the educational, career and pai „ self-help information. ^Onmeilt, mid A. 1 Students seeking helps! , , i make an appointment, Bkli 11 deaden Counselors are available fc g Center C a.m. to 12 p.m. andlp.it | p.m., Monday through Fail. A counselor will see a student as quickly as possible, Birch said, “to make sure a suicide or homicide isn’t involved.” After the initial appointment the student can go Aggie Trivia HOUSTON CHRONICLE “It (Texas A&M University) was a colorful, if not always comfortable, atmosphere for gaining an education. Bathing facilities were only one of the unobtainable luxuries at A&M. Governor Coke and the A&M Board of Directors would have liked to open the school in the fall of 1875 but were forced to wait another year. There was simp ly too much to be done. There was no president or faculty, no resident or dining facilities. Merely a vast, unequipped main building in the middle of the prairie, four miles from a raw frontier town called Bryan. And if the site of this new institution of learning was close to primitive, its initial educa tional efforts were perhaps more primitive sli! While the school was authorized to te idemic difficul look at the p “Is it that ong major? E velopmental !: rticular course ‘We hesitate I agricultural and mechanical arts, such subjtd elligence, beca the fact is thi had rarely if ever been taught anywhere else _ and never in Texas. Knowledge about thesess! ibetter studen . nts. Some stud jects was, at best, severely limited. A&MsB faculty shared very basic problems with fact! everywhere at that time and necessarily f« similar answers: stick to the tenets of a class! difficulty idemic enviror :M.” education and avoid the unknown.”—APiclors History of Texas A&M University by Henrjt Dethloff !Wis said the tudent’s acade school grade ticAchievemei "* licators, but st, he said. DISCOUNT 1 / 2 PRICE W MORNING DELIVERY YOU NOW HAVE A CHOICE ON YOUR MORNING NEWS PAPER. THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE IS THE LARGEST MORNING NEWSPAPER IN BRAZOS COUNTY. GUARANTEED DELIVERY TO YOUR DORM, APART MENT OR HOME DAILY AND SUNDAY FOR THE FALL SEMESTER. FOR TEXAS A&M STUDENT, FACULTY & STAFF Aug. 31 — Dec. 18 $ 11 50 Aug. 31 — Dec. 31 $ 12 75 'For the mostp lost students hr ligence to do cM. But there itors that go ii e motivation levels, [“Does the stud his life? Can he visions? fit’s a very co: diat we intend t< sources availal mts assess thei en try to come i utions,’ ie ai If the problen irm counseling ie student is ref JUST CALL 693-2323 or 846-0763 When you’ve been on the registration line since 7:30 in the morning and it’s now 8:30 in the afternoot and you’re holding number494 and they’re up to number ii ...it’s no time to get filled up. Houston Chronicle BRAZOS BEVERAGES Bryan We put a little extra in your day Vi7b Ttu; Bff. Lite Beer from Miller. Everything you always wanted in a beer. And less. • Sal