Savannah College of Art and Design Student Counseling Center

Written by Jordan Petteys, photos by Nick Thomsen

According to Christopher Corbett, the managing director of counseling and student support services, "mental health ultimately is function of everything we practise."

Corbett oversees all of the counseling services across all campuses and primarily works with the Savannah squad to support mental health based and academic accommodations for students. Corbett likewise provides services as a licensed psychologist. He argues that academic and professional pressures within SCAD's bookish environment, time direction and social atmospheres tin all contribute to a pupil'south overall mental health.

Corbett discussed the emotional toll creative expression can take on students.

"You're putting who you are as a person––your own experience into what yous're designing and what yous're creating while likewise feeding off other people and that process of creation," Corbett said.

The classes a person takes, their fourth dimension management skills, living state of affairs, deadlines and concrete wellness all arguably impacts their mental health. Corbett stressed the importance of nurturing physical health to support mental health, emphasizing sleep and nutrition every bit crucial when under stress.

Because the university attempts to replicate the professional environment with fourth dimension sensitive art and design projects, Corbett believes it's crucial to create construction inside a schedule and communicate with others. Having an organized plan leaves room to support physical and mental health.

"Mental Health [happens] to everybody with varying amounts of impact. Nosotros similar to think that nosotros tin control it, simply nosotros often experience that we can't," Corbett said.

He argued that some of the best means students can have command of their environments is by setting up their schedule to support well beingness.

"Inevitably something is going to happen that we don't program for. If we build flexibility into what we are doing, that tin sometimes serve as a fiddling bit of a buffer in moments of high stress," Corbett said.

Afterward suicides on campus this year, the counseling department implemented new strategies to their do based on feedback from students and faculty.

"When an private dies by suicide, that'southward a permanent thing. We know a lot of students feel passionate most it, and we do too equally an office. It's going to be something that students call up about and that a smaller percent of students volition act on and that's why we are here. That's why we are on call every day all hours of the day," Corbett said.

All services provided through SCAD'south counseling are voluntary and free. "The whole reason nosotros be is to support students. The more than attainable we can be the better the outcome is going to exist," Corbett said.

Sessions typically have an hour or less and students must accomplish out to be seen. Current students can ready up an appointment by calling 912.525.6971 or emailing counseling@scad.edu.

Although the center is primarily appointment based, first time screenings are bachelor every weekday, Monday through Friday from one to 4 p.m., no date needed. Additionally, the section also provides 24/7 service for crisis situations. SCAD card holders can find the telephone number for the on-telephone call counselor on the back of their ID cards.

Co-ordinate to Corbett, suicide is the second leading cause of expiry for this age group. Therefore, the counseling section believes in the power of vocalizing and supporting mental wellness.

"It is important for us to be able to talk about information technology positively and helpfully, and it's okay to say the word suicide out loud," Corbett said.

When a student does dice by suicide, the counseling department offers several resource for support. In response to the deaths on campus earlier this year, counselors were bachelor in the office, by phone all day and in the residence halls evenings.

"I went out and talked to a number of the classes that nosotros knew the students were in. We wanted to talk to the professors in those classes specifically because we had, we didn't know for certain, a sense that they might be impacted a footling bit more than past the deaths," Corbett said. "Nosotros are going to do everything we can when [a suicide happens] to help with healing and making sense of the grief."

Since families sometimes choose not to disclose data regarding a loved one's suicide, Corbett indicated this can, understandably, lead to misunderstandings and strong feelings.

"Whenever someone passes abroad, information technology's challenging for many of us. Suicide adds another layer of difficulty [to grief] because we are all left with the why, and in about all cases it'due south not an respond nosotros are going to get. We are also understandably angry and upset and it's a lot easier to process something when we have a identify or a person to put that on," Corbett said. "Sometimes people are going to put that on u.s.a., only if that helps them work through it, we promise that they will reach out to us as well and then we tin aid them."

Recently, the Counseling Support Services initiated the SCAD Care Project, a program geared toward providing extra training for groups on campus related to suicide prevention.

"We decided that, afterwards reviewing some feedback from students, faculty and staff on campus, the community would do good from something more than structured and formalized to assist everybody feel more equipped and comfortable talking about things that many people feel to be difficult," Corbett said.

The project intends to inform people on how to talk about suicide, be enlightened of the signs that someone may be suicidal and offering back up to those who are struggling.

Corbett ensured that the department is actively seeking new methods for relaying accurate data nigh their services to students.

"Nosotros know from looking at SCAD'southward information and larger information from other colleges that when a suicide happens, in that location are times where that person never reached out," Corbett said.

According to Corbett, the department always welcomes feedback on how they can improve their services.

"Nosotros listen to students and kinesthesia and make adjustments so that students feel what nosotros intend for them to experience. Our attitudes, desires and passion oasis't changed, merely we're trying to discover ways to go a lilliputian bit closer to the students where they're at in that moment," Corbett said.

Ultimately, Corbett hopes students know "at that place really is an arrangement that is advocating for them, wants them to succeed and wants to assistance."

jonsonlethed.blogspot.com

Source: https://scaddistrict.com/2019/04/10/director-of-counseling-and-support-services-discusses-scads-mental-health/

Share this post