Are you concerned about a student?

• A decline in academic performance
• Dramatic changes in behavior
• Weight gain or weight loss
• Slurred speech or confused thinking
• Sleeping in class
• Poor personal hygiene
• Repeated hangover or other signs of drug or alcohol use
• Sadness, anxiety, irritability, depression, poor concentration
• Over-dependance on you
• Erratic emotional reactions
• Overt references to suicide or harming others
• Is the main focus of other student's complaints or concerns
• Repeatedly requests deadline extensions or begins missing classes/meetings
• Alludes to harrassment or assault
• Repeatedly violates community norms of behavior
• Disrupts class

Knowing where to refer to students is sometimes difficult, as academic, behavioral, and psychiatric problems often come together.  If someone's life is threatened, in which case you should dial 911, you can refer a student to Counseling or Academic Advising, who can then initiate other referrals, if necessary. To make you referrals you should:

• Tell students that "there are several places you can go on campus for help, including the Dean of Student Development and Campus Life, Academic Advising, and Counseling Services."
• Reassure the student that it is an act of strength to ask for help after all. It's a lot easier to avoid facing problems.
• Dismiss the myth that only "weak or crazy" people turn to others for help. In fact many students use Counseling Services every year. That doesn't include the students who go elsewhere on campus for help.
• If you refer students to Counseling Services, remind them that counseling services are free and confidential: they are NOT part of the student's academic record.
• Offer to help make the initial contact with the Dean of Student Development and Campus Life, Office of Residence Life, Academic Advising, or Counseling Services: you can make a phone call together to set up an appointment or walk the student to the appropriate office.

While you don't want to intrude into a student's personal life, it's OK to follow up later (and may make the student feel better) by saying something, "I hope you're doing better these days."