Oh, Those College Kids

Working with college students can be a daunting task. They are considered adults legally, but exhibit mostly adolescent behaviors and emotions. They act as if they have all the answers, yet tend to make very poor decisions and have an almost fantasy-like view of the world. They turn red in the face, stomp their feet, and clench their fists while demanding to be treated like adults. And then there are the ones who abuse substances!

According to research conducted by Henry Wechsler, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health, an estimated 31% of college students meet DSM-IV criteria for an alcohol abuse diagnosis and 6% for alcohol dependence. These data have huge implications for those in the substance abuse treatment field, as the sheer number of students who need services is staggering.

College counseling centers are overworked and understaffed. The decision makers on college campuses usually have no idea how expansive the substance use problem is in the student body, and have a difficult time directing funds to meet the needs of today's student in crisis. This is why partnerships between addiction treatment professionals and college personnel are so important. But there's a catch.

Randy Haveson
Treatment and higher education professionals seem to speak different languages, which is why treatment professionals find it so difficult to get in the door of the local college or university. Treatment professionals see themselves as a potential ally, but the university sees them as a threat. One of the reasons is that universities today are very concerned with retention. Look at the agenda for any higher education conference and you will find the word “retention” in the titles or abstracts of many sessions and workshops. Colleges are afraid to let a student go to treatment or see an “outside” therapist for fear that they will never see that student again—and this very well may be true.

Learn the culture

So how can the wall between treatment and higher education get taken down? One way is for the treatment professional to speak the language of academia. Talk about research and statistics. Know about the Harvard studies and CORE Institute (Southern Illinois University) data. Find out what the specific needs are on campus and how extensive the college's alcohol and other drug (AOD) and health promotion efforts are.

Here are some questions to investigate. Does the college have a “social norms” campaign or does it use a “harm reduction” model? Is it employing an “environmental change” approach or using Motivational Interviewing? Has the college been listed as a “top 10 party school” (an embarrassment for administrators)? Search the institution's Web site to get an idea of the campus “personality.”

Many colleges and universities are reactive rather than proactive in their approach to AOD-related issues. When a student death occurs and receives national attention, the school responds—and usually not very well. Colleges tend to be punitive in their response rather than supportive, with sanctions tending toward the severe rather than the educational.

Universities are tricky places to navigate. Allies can come from many different offices. The main offices to look into are counseling, health promotion, health education, the health center, AOD services, or even student development. The larger the university, the more options the professional will have here. Some smaller colleges might have only a nurse who handles substance abuse issues, or possibly only one counselor on a campus of 2,500 students. The smaller schools probably will be more open to the outside treatment professional than the larger ones will be.


The HERO House Here's an example of a possible scenario that could work in a larger institution. You find out that the major state university in your area has an office for substance abuse counseling, with three full-time counselors and two interns. You write and call numerous times and receive no response. Then you find out that the school has a health promotion office. You write to the coordinator of health promotion and she writes back within 10 minutes and says she would like to meet with you. At the meeting, you find out what the school's needs are, and you tell them about yourself and what you can offer. She tells you that a friend of hers works in substance abuse services, and she introduces you to the assistant director of substance abuse services. You put your card in the assistant director's hand, offering to take the person to lunch and possibly do a free in-service training for staff. You are now in the door.

Post-treatment considerations

More and more campuses are seeing the need for outside help in addressing students who have substance abuse problems. This is good news for all of us, but there is still one piece missing: where students should go when they finish treatment or get sober through counseling.

Until recently, very few colleges had recovery support services on campus. Fortunately, there are more options available today than ever before. Some colleges have recovery programs attached to the campus, and each has its own model. Rutgers University was the first to offer recovery housing on campus; its program continues to be one of the country's best. Texas Tech University and Augsburg College in Minneapolis have exceptional programs with a track record. In the past couple of years, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Colorado have implemented campus recovery programs as well. A great resource for someone looking for a recovery-based program is the Association of Recovery Schools (https://www.recoveryschools.org), which maintains a full list of recovery high school and college programs around the country.

Another option now available to treatment professionals is private recovery housing for college students. Over the past few years, programs have opened at the University of Minnesota and Washington State University, and soon there will be one at the University of Wisconsin. While these programs serve students only on those campuses, the program that I direct in the Atlanta area attracts residents from all parts of the country. The HERO House (Higher Education Recovery Option) is a recovery residence utilizing the 12-Step model and is designed specifically for college students in early recovery. Residents usually come directly from a treatment facility. They can attend one of a variety of colleges depending on their past experience and amount of success in higher education.

One of those campuses, Kennesaw State University, is a half mile from the house and has what is called a “transient student” program allowing students from other colleges to take classes there and have the credits transfer to whatever college they came from. Usually Kennesaw State allows students to be in the transient program for only one semester, but HERO House residents can have two semesters of transient status.

The main advantage of the peer-to-peer model at The HERO House is that college students get to live with and recover with other college students. The typical stay is one year.

Making progress

While it is true that higher education still has a long way to go in terms of helping students with substance-related issues, colleges and universities have made much progress in the past decade. More schools have 12-Step meetings on or near campus. More campuses have professionals on staff who specifically address substance abuse problems. Many campuses have peer educators and training for students who want to help. Organizations such as the BACCHUS Network, the Higher Education Center, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and the American College Health Association now have tracks and conferences devoted to AOD issues.

There are ways to bridge the gap between treatment and higher education. Professionals in both fields want the same thing: to help young people live happy and successful lives. We would like to prevent substance abuse problems from occurring in the first place. But if that is not conceivable, we should give young people the best care possible to deal with their addiction and to recover in a safe and sober environment.

Randy Haveson, Founder and Program Director of The HERO House, has worked in the substance abuse field since 1985. He has been a counselor in a variety of treatment centers and on three university campuses, where he coordinated AOD education programs.

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Suggestions for Success on Campus

Here are some tips that might help to break down barriers between a treatment professional and university staff:

• If there is a substance abuse specialist on campus, talk to that person first and become an ally. Ask what you can do to help, rather than state all the wonderful things you can do for their students. That will come after building a relationship.

• A private-practice provider might have a better chance of getting in the door than a treatment center's marketing specialist will. Most university professionals see marketing people as those who want to sell them something, and this can be a turnoff.

• E-mail is the preferred way to communicate. It could take days or weeks to get a phone call returned, but minutes or hours to get an e-mail reply. Make the first communication short: “Hi …, my name is … and I'm a therapist here in town. I specialize in AOD-related issues and I'd like to know what I can do to support you and your students. I was hoping we could set up a time to talk or meet and discuss how we might be able to work together. If lunch is an option one day, it's my treat. Sincerely,….” If you have a Web site, make sure to include a Web link in your signature or in the body of the e-mail. University personnel will go to your Web site before they write back or call you.

• Once you're in the door, offer to do a “lunch and learn” in-service for their staff. Make sure your training doesn't step on the toes of the campus professional. Find out from the specialist beforehand what the staff's training needs are. When you bring lunch, make sure you have enough for interns and office staff. Bringing food is always a good way to make friends on a campus.

• Offer a site visit to your facility or office. The school might or might not take you up on the offer, but let personnel know that your doors are open to them.

• Know the academic calendar. Don't call during the first few weeks of the semester—people are swamped. Also don't call during finals week, Alcohol Awareness Week (third week in October), or the week before spring break. During the holiday breaks and in the summer, people take time off, and some are on 10-month appointments and aren't even there in the summer months.