Counselors looking toward future
By ELENA GRIMM - egrimm@daily-chronicle.com
When Northern Illinois University shut down for a week after last year’s campus shooting, the counseling center stayed open.
And in the year since a former student walked into Room 101 of Cole Hall on Feb. 14, 2008, and opened fire, killing five students before turning the gun on himself, the NIU Counseling and Student Development Center has seen it all, director Micky Sharma said.
Over the past 12 months, significant changes have occurred at the counseling center, internally and externally.
The number of walk-ins – students who come into the CSDC for the first time – increased 22 percent from fall 2007 to fall 2008. Two new psychologists have been added to the payroll.
“I think this is a good thing,” Sharma said. “If someone’s upset or struggling we want them to come here.”
Still, while people continue to struggle with the aftermath of the shooting, the increased demand for services reveals a multifaceted struggle.
“Right now the vast majority of people who come in are not coming in and saying, ‘I’m here today because of the shooting last year,’ ” Sharma said.
And NIU is not the only local higher education institution with students affected by the shooting. Kishwaukee College has helped its students cope with the tragedy, and counselors have boosted their crisis-management training and created a campus emergency task force, said Cassandra Downs, a counselor at the Counseling and Student Development Center.
“In talking to students, some were really upset. They either knew somebody who was hurt or they were either enrolled here and at Northern,” Downs said.
Providing care
The on-campus counselors haven’t been the only ones working with students. When classes resumed about a week after the shooting, 509 volunteer counselors from across the country also came to campus to help.
Some of the volunteers were staff at local health clinics, like the DeKalb-based mental health facility Ben Gordon Center. From working with students as they evacuated dorms to holding wellness seminars and town hall meetings months later, these off-campus services also were affected by the shooting, Ben Gordon Center CEO Michael Flora said.
The shooting resulted in the Ben Gordon Center received a federal grant for emergency response to train others on mental health first aid. This type of first aid helps someone who is developing a mental health problem or in a mental health crisis until they can be steered toward the proper resources, Flora explained.
The mental health response to a crisis is broken into several steps, Flora said. The first 60 days are intended to bring a sense of support and security, he said, while the 61st day until the first anniversary is to provide additional support and outreach initiatives in the community.
At Kishwaukee College, for instance, they held a candlelight ceremony about a week after the shooting for students to mourn, and the school cafeteria was packed – a sign that healing is taking place, Downs said. On Friday, a similar service will be held.
What’s ahead is the long-term phase, Flora said, the gradual phaseout of professional services and a return to those natural support groups like PTA and church groups.
Sharma noted that NIU has tried to send two messages to the community since Feb. 15, 2008.
The first is to “honor your emotional response. Whatever you’re feeling is OK. You feel OK, great. You’re struggling, that’s OK too.” he said. “The second message is that healing and recovery is a unique and individualized process.”
Resiliency
With tragedy comes a heightened visibility, and this has changed how people view counseling, Sharma said. One thing that has occurred in the past year is the stigma associated with counseling has lessened, he said.
“It’s certainly still there, but I think that counseling and getting help has become more just a fabric of what we do,” Sharma said. “If you have bronchitis and need an antibiotic, go to health services and see a physician. If you’re not feeling well, you’re kinda struggling, you might be a little down, you should go to the counseling center.”
Public awareness and support for counseling is reflected in the number of community members who bring concerns to counseling staff.
“We get more people – faculty, staff, people in the community – calling us about students they’re concerned about,” Sharma said.
Sixty-eight counselors from NIU and the community will be on campus Saturday during NIU’s Day of Remembrance activities. Unlike in the aftermath of the shooting, counselors will simply “have a presence” at the day’s events and will wear badges identifying them as counselors, Sharma said.
The word Sharma used to describe where the recovery process is now is resiliency.
“People talk about valuing relationships more, feeling more connected to NIU, having more Huskie spirit,” he said. “It hasn’t all been about trauma and depression and grief, some of it has been about recovery and hope.”
