The Michigan.Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, April 5, 2012 - 5A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycomThursday, April 5, 2012 -
RESOURCES
From Page 1A
psychiatric and psychological
professionals, administrators and
an attorney from the Office of the
General Counsel who recommend
improvements to mental health
prevention and treatment servic-
es on campus.
CAPS offers scheduled
appointments for students who
do not require immediate care
but would still like to talk with a
therapist. Drop-in therapygroups
are also available, as well as crisis
intervention services.
In addition to scheduled
appointments, Sevig said CAPS
also offers same-day walk-in
care for individuals who require
immediate psychological assis-
tance during their business
hours.
In addition to CAPS' many pro-
active education and prevention
programs, Sevig said CAPS staff
has trained more than 3,000 stu-
dents, faculty and staff to notice if
their peers begin to demonstrate
mental health issues through the
Question Persuade Refer pro-
gram. The program educates
people on how to respond to situ-
ations in which an individual has
suicidal thoughts.
Though he encouraged indi-
viduals to become trained in QPR,
he stressed that those who are not
QPR-trained can still follow the
general tenets.
"The first thing is to take time
to talk with the person and to
listen," Sevig said. "The second
thing is to say, 'Gee, I'm wonder-
ing, are you thinking about hurt-
ing yourself?' And then, the third
thing is to persuade that person to
get help."
Sevig encouraged friends and
professors who are concerned
about an individual to personally
help them through the process by
referring the student to CAPS.
UMHS PSYCHIATRIC
EMERGENCY SERVICE
ASSISTS DURING
EMERGENCIES
Much like the University
Hospital's emergency room, the
University of Michigan Health
System Psychiatric Emergency
Service serves as an emergency
center for individuals experi-
encing mental health issues that
require urgent attention.
Rachel Glick, medical director
of the UMHS PES, said the ser-
vice - which is located near the
UMHS medical ER - is staffed
with about 70 mental health
professionals, including psychia-
trists, social workers, nurses and
medical assistants and is open 24
hours a day, seven days a week.
Glick said patients who initially
enter the medical ER are often
referred to PES if their symptoms
are psychiatric in nature.
Though individuals may be
confused as to when they should
come to PES as opposed to
CAPS or another mental health
resource on campus, Glick said
those who notice "significant
suicidal thinking or behavior"
or behavior "that is out of the
ordinary, unusual or poten-
tially dangerous" should visit
PES for treatment. The service's
24/7 hours makes it particularly
resourceful for individuals who
might have walked into CAPS for
an urgent appointment during
business hours.
Like CAPS, Glick said PES staff
members also assess a significant
number of individuals who are
experiencing a crisis, meaning
that they may not have expressed
suicidal thoughts,but desireguid-
ance as to whatthey can doto pre-
vent depression or other disorders
from progressing.
When a person enters PES,
Glick said they're immediately
triaged by a team of nurses and
medical assistants who deter-
mine their mental health status.
Subsequently, a clinician, usually
a social worker, spends time with
the patient to assess their history
and specific symptoms in order
to develop a plan of treatment.
Lastly, a psychiatrist briefly dis-
cusses drug treatment options
with the patient.
PES is one of only a few psy-
chiatric emergency rooms in the
state, according to Glick. She
said a large number of patients
requiring treatment for behav-
ioral issues end up in medical
emergency rooms.
"Even if a hospital doesn't
have a dedicated psychiatric
emergency service, they're still
getting patients who are hav-
ing these kinds of emergencies,"
Glick said. "They're just taking
care of them in the medical emer-
gency world."
PES also operates a 24-hour
crisis line - featuring psychi-
atric evaluation and treatment
recommendations according to
the PES website - which can be
reached at (734) 996-4747.
Glick said PES is just one part
of a large network of mental
health facilities on campus.
"I see us as sort of an integral
part of a whole system to support
our whole community," Glick
said.
UHS ALSO OFFERS
AN ARRAY OF MENTAL
HEALTH SERVICES
The University Health Service
also offers several psychological
and psychiatric services. Robert
Winfield, the University's chief
health officer and director of
UHS, said if a student, staff or
faculty member is certain they
are in psychological distress,
they should first look to facili-
ties such as CAPS or the PES ER,
whose primary mission is to treat
students for psychological issues.
However, he emphasized that if
a person in distress does come to
UHS, the clinic's staff is capable
of assisting them.
Winfield said without an
appointment, an individual in
distress may be seen by a UHS
nurse practitioner, who will
assess their needs and direct
them toward the appropri-
ate services, whether that be a
referral to CAPS, UHS's part-
time psychiatrist or the UMHS
PES.
Winfield added that if UHS
providers can prescribe psychi-
atric medication if they deem it
appropriate, such as when a stu-
dent has run out of medication
or believes that a medication will
resolve his or her problem. If a
person's mental health issues are
not severe, Winfield said UHS
clinicians may even be able to
treat the patient in-house.
"Health Service is one
resource, but not the first
resource for people that are very
depressed," Winfield said.
He added: "It's an alternative
resource, which will typically
not have the level of expertise
for somebody who is severely
depressed, but can help people
who have less severe difficulties."
What might be most notice-
able to students who visit UHS
is the implementation of two
patient questionnaires that were
launched in August. Individu-
als who visit the UHS walk-in
clinic are now asked to fill out the
PHQ-9 questionnaire, a widely
used test that assesses an indi-
vidual's level of depression, in
addition to an audit that screens
for alcohol abuse.
If an individual scores high
on either the 27-point depres-
sion questionnaire or the alcohol
audit, Winfield said UHS staff
members work directly with the
patient to provide them with the
necessary resources to resolve
possible problems.
"We are very pleased with
the work we've been doing on
this because we have identified
a good number of students who
had not come in just to seek help
just for psychological or alcohol
issues, but we were able to iden-
tify these and reach out to them,"
Winfield said.
Between Aug. 22, 2011 and
Nov.22, 2011, Winfield said about
6,000 patients took the PHQ-9
questionnaire. He said 0.6 per-
cent of the patients were deemed
to be severely depressed, 1.5
percent were suspected to have
moderately severe depression,
4 percent scored as moderately
depressed and 11 percent scored
as mildly depressed. If a patient
scores as moderately severe or
severe, UHS social workers aid
the individual in gaining access
to the necessary resources to
treat their depression.
WEBSITE SERVES
AS PORTAL FOR
INFORMATION ON
MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
The University also hosts a
website that specifically helps
students with ongoing health
disorders called Campus Mind
Works.
Stephanie Salazar, project
coordinator for Campus Mind
Works, said the site is a portal of
information for students on how
to manage their disorder while
studying at the University.
"Everything on there is really
focused on that student with the
ongoing health disorder and how
to navigate through the Univer-
sity," Salazar said. "And we also
have information about what
to do if you're hospitalized, and
what the process is to get back
into school and what resources
are available to you."
According to Salazar, the site
also works with the College of
Engineering and the Universi-
ty's Psychological Clinic to pro-
vide free education and support
groups for students on campus.
Salazar said prevention and
education are crucial in proac-
tively monitoring the campus
community for mental health
issues.
"Obviously, prevention is
important when we're talking
about mental health because it's
so much easier to tackle a prob-
lem before it gets really bad,"
Salazar said.
She added that when the site
was being developed, many stu-
dents surveyed were unaware
of the options they had in tak-
ing a semester leave, dropping
classes or reducing their work-
load. According to the academic
section of the website, students
with certain mental health dis-
orders can request a, waiver
from the University's Services
for Students Disabilities, which
will state that they are taking a
reduced course load but should
still be recognized as a full-time
student.
Campus Mind Works also has
resources for parents who may
be concerned about their stu-
dent's mental health. Salazar
said the information is intended
to give parents an overview of
how they can effectively support
their children.
"(There is) some informa-
tion about what parents can do
to support their student's men-
tal health because I know a lot
of parents have trouble sort of
navigating both being support-
ive but not overbearing especial-
ly if their student is away from
home," Salazar said.
COMPLIANCE
From Page 1A
they've changed how many peo-
ple have to disclose (conflict of
interest information), (and) the
time in which you have to dis-
close."
Pollack said the University
consulted with peer institu-
tions on how to minimize costs
accrued by the new regulations,
and it chose to focus on human
resources rather than expensive
software systems to comply with
federal guidelines.
"Originally, we were going to
put in place some permanent staff
positions, but what we learned
based on other people's experi-
ence with workflow was that after
a year or two, things settled out,
so we can budget for some term-
limited positions," Pollack said.
Pollack emphasized that
despite NIH's focus on conflict
of interest information in the
most recent update to the federal
guidelines, managed conflicts of
interest pose no issue for the Uni-
versity.
"Conflicts of interest in (them-
selves are) not a bad thing. A bad
thing is having a conflict of inter-
est that's not managed," Pollack
said. "You have to disclose it and
make sure it's properly managed,
or if it can't be managed, that you
don't act on it."
According to a University
report released last Friday, a snap-
shot of projects on Feb. 9 revealed
that more than 5,200 projects at
the University are under reviewby
the Institutional Review Boards,
one of the leading compliance
oversight bodies in University
research which monitors research
activities and protocols to be sure
they meet regulations and ethical
standards. More than 4,000 of the
projects are medically related, and
they often require the strictest
oversight.
Judy Nowack, associate vice
president for research at the Uni-
versity, said despite the new regu-
lations, the University has tried to
increase the IRBs' responsiveness
to project petitions from faculty.
Many non-medical projects are
now exempt from the formal proj-
ects review or subject to an "expe-
dited review." In 2011, fewer than
four new non-medical proposals
went before a full IRB committee
for review each month.
"We're trying to take low risk
determinations to educated staff,
rather than taking faculty time
to do it," Nowack said. "It's all a
balance. We do it; we look at the
effect ... We don't want to increase
risk in the system."
Nowack added that the Univer-
sity's Office of Human Research
Compliance Review independent-
ly oversees and educates the IRBs
and faculty on protocols and com-
pliance issues at the University.
According to Nowack,the OHRCR
also conducts surveys to measure
risk in the research system.
"We do subscribe that we pro-
vide protection to vulnerable
groups," Nowack said. "Our fac-
ulty members pretty well realize
that if somebody gives us a bad
reputation in the community,
where we draw our subjects, then
their own research is going to suf-
fer."
Nowack added that violations
of compliance issues within the
research unit seldom require
direct response from the OHRCR.
"It's very rare that we get really
serious things that come all the
way up to the top," Nowack said.
"We try to keep our fingers on the
pulse."
Fiona Linn, senior policy and
projects adviser in the Office of
the Vice President and General
Counsel, said the University has
not followed in the footsteps of
many peer institutions in cen-
tralizing compliance operations
under one office. She added that
the complexity and large variety
of University compliance opera-
tions prevented the University
from pursuing that route.
"We made a deliberate choice
at U of M not to centralize all of
the compliance functions, which
a number of universities have
done," Linn said. "They've done it
following a very corporate model
in which you have one senior vice
president or similar role (who) is
responsible for all issues in com-
pliance."
Linn helped oversee the cre-
ation of the Compliance Resource
Center website, which is available
for University students and staff.
It currently serves as a launch-
ing point and information clear-
inghouse for compliance issues
that allows users to access more
detailed information and contacts.
""'^ "'^to 1')I';n - -'i-- ---"
on duplication of effort," Linn including links to privacy rights
said. "Previously, you had people in disclosing grades and finan-
in various schools and colleges all cial aid rights.
trying to answer the same ques- "That's been one underlying
tion (in) duplicative, and by coor- assumption of all the work we've
dinating these resources, we're done ... we've kept assuming that
hoping that it saves time people we're dealing with a whole lot of
spend across the University." smart people who want to do the
Linn added that outside of right thing," Linn said. "We want
research, the compliance web- to give them information to help
site also deals with student them know what the right thing
rights and responsibilities, looks like."
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