I would say that Counsellors would not have a part to play
in supporting a students application for DSA.
Reason being that counsellors do not usually involve
themselves in case work with LEAs. Also, any student
requiring support through DSA by virtue of mental health
problems should provide concrete evidence of their
disability from their doctor/psychiatrist. As diagnosing
some psychiatric conditions seems not to be an exact
science feedback from a community psychiatric social worker
(with the students permission) can be useful in order to
find out more about the symptoms, how the student is
affected and side effects of any medication.
The evidence solely of a university counsellor would not be
sufficient as it would be coming from someone not qualified
to provide a diagnosis, or would be second hand and
therefore open to question.
Furthermore, as confidentiality is a fundamental tenet of
counselling it would be inappropriate from a counselling
point of view to give the Disability Officer or LEA
feedback about the students condition/situation.
Bryan Jones
Equal Opportunities Adviser
London Guildhall University
On Mon, 21 Jun 1999 12:49:31 -0400 (EDT) "Littlejohn,
Julie" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> (Apologies for any cross-postings).
>
> Does anyone have any experience of working with the
> Counselling services in HE in relation to students with
> mental health difficulties applying for DSAs?
>
> As far as staff at the University of the the West of
> England are aware, such a situation has never occurred, and
> they have never really probed in to the subject. I imagine
> there are issues around students with mental health
> difficulties classing themselves as disabled;
> undergoing the procedures for carrying out an assessment of
> educational support needs etc.
>
> If anyone has any comments on this subject it would be
> interesting to hear them, so I can pass them back to the
> Counselling services.
>
> Thanks
> Julie Littlejohn
>
> ----------------------------------------
> Littlejohn, Julie
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> "University of the West of England"
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