Mental Health and Educational Access Resources

Policies
 FERPA
o Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of the student’s
education record, which are any records maintained by an institution.
o FERPA does allow higher education staff, faculty and administrators who are concerned
about the student to discuss their concerns.
o Link to FERPA website
 HIPAA
o Students need to fill out a Release of Information (ROI) in order for medical and health
information to be released to college administrators.
o Follow your institution’s school’s written protocol pertaining to HIPAA.
o Link to a summary on HIPAA regulations
 ADA/Disability Law
o The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued letters to IHES about their compliance with
these laws. OCR requires IHEs to make individualized determinations for each situation
and to tailor their interventions to fit the situation.
o SA pros need to provide reasonable accommodations for students to be successful.
o Students must self-identify and request reasonable accommodations. IF the IHE is
unaware of a disability, they have no legal obligation to provide such accommodations.
o Learn more about the American disability act

Cases
 Mahoney Vs Allegheny
o Mahoney was a case of information access to parents in which the campus wasn’t found
guilty of negligence.
o Student had previous contact with counselors about depression and this lead to his
death. Campus had followed procedure and conducted many references and resource
references.
o Parents believed that because they were never informed that the campus had a form of
negligence since they would have conducted things differently. Due to HIPAA and FERPA
laws information about this incident couldn’t be divulged to the parents.
o Link to the case
 Bash Vs Clarke
o The campus within this case was not found guilty of negligence.
o Foreseeability is key within most of these lawsuits. Within Bash v Clarke, although the
student had seemed upset and mad, there was little to no foreseeablness that the
student would commit suicide thus the actions taken by the campus were seen as just.
o Link to the case
 Rosen Vs UCLA
o Campus was found with negligence since there was a duty of care to protect their
student from another student who had shown violent tendencies. There was an
 extreme foreseeability since this conduct had gone on for a significant period of time
and multiple incidents were recorded.
o Link to case

Ethical Risk Management

 Miller and Sorochty (2014)-Chapter 12: Counseling and Helping Services.
 Lake (2011)- Chapter 3:Managing the Institution of Higher Education Environment Part I: Safety,
Risk Management, Wellness, and Security
 The Jed Foundation
o Website: Click here
 Sign up for Newsletter
 Specific Resources for Colleges and Universities
o Students Mental Health and the Law Article: Click Here
o The Jed Recommended Practices
 Use good professional judgment.
 Develop a comprehensive suicide/violence prevention program.
 Follow written and/or unwritten policies and protocols.
 Ensure that available mental health services are in keeping with professional
codes of ethics and standards of practice. Be sure to accurately portray the
services available.
 Work with resident advisors, faculty members, and other "gatekeepers" to
encourage distressed students to seek professional help.
 Avoid "zero tolerance" policies that eliminate the individualized assessment of
students in distress.

QPR
 Question Persuade Refer is a certification class in a tool for suicide prevention
 Here is a link to a 25-minute presentation on QPR Link to voicethread