Crisis Consultations

Students Experiencing Crisis Situations

For Students: If you believe you are experiencing a crisis that cannot wait for a regularly scheduled appointment, please contact our office. A clinical counselor will meet with you on the first available emergency appointment to do a brief assessment and make recommendations as to how to proceed.

For Faculty, Staff, and Administrators: If you are concerned about a student who may be in crisis, please call CAPS to consult and/or visit the Dean of Students Office website for more information around student concerns. One avenue for reporting student concerns is the Action Care Team (ACT). Please visit the Action Care Team website if you want to make a report.

The clinical counselors at Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) are aware that some students may experience an emergency situation that requires immediate attention. The following information has been prepared to help you decide whether a crisis consultation is needed for your situation.

If you are uncertain, please call our office at (415) 338-2208 to consult with a clinical counselor.

Crisis consultations are designed to assist students who are confronting life-threatening circumstances, current or recent traumatic crises, or serious mental illness. To be seen for a crisis consultation, one of the issues below should be present:

• Current suicidal thoughts, serious thoughts of harming yourself, and the potential need to be hospitalized
• Current thoughts about seriously harming another person
• Sexual assault within the last 4 days
• Traumatic event (accident, natural disaster, or physical violence) within the last 7 days
• Incident of domestic or dating violence within the last 7 days
• Current symptoms such as: seeing or hearing things that others do not see or hear, feelings of paranoia, lack of need to sleep for the last several days and still having plenty of energy, and major difficulty functioning

Clinical counselors are available to meet with students who are in crisis when it is essential to be seen as soon as possible to prevent serious consequences, or when waiting for an appointment may seriously aggravate their existing condition.

If you believe your situation is a crisis that cannot wait for a regularly scheduled appointment, please contact our office. A clinical counselor will meet with you on the first available crisis consultation to do a brief assessment and make recommendations as to how to proceed.

Due to the demand for counseling services, there may be times when clinical counselors are unable to see students on the same day. In these cases, students will be given information for off-campus emergency services and the priority for the first available crisis consultation the following day.

If your emergency occurs after business hours, please contact:

National Suicide & Crisis Hotlines:

• 1-800-SUICIDE or 1-800-784-2433
• 1-800-273-Talk or 1-800-273-8255
• TTY: 1-800-799-4TTY (4889)