In the wake of a student’s suicide, Brandeis faculty meet with a representative of the Psychiatric Counseling Center, who explains that because of confidentiality rules, “Every single one of the suicides [at Brandeis] has a backstory that I can’t tell you about.”
It’s understandable that, as this post’s headline notes, students don’t want their professors knowing their medical stuff. On the other hand, this means we can’t be of much help when a student’s in crisis. After decades of teaching, I’ve only seen a couple of manifestly troubled students in my classes.
March 14th, 2011 at 2:17PM
not much that faculty can or should do except maybe inform the relevant administrators of any troubling behaviors. these matters can get very messy very quickly. schools should do more to let students/parents know that if their kids have psychiatric histories that they should establish some kind of relationship with campus health-services when they arrive.