Peer Helpers: Bridging the Gap between the Student Community and the University’s Counseling Service

Students helping students as a concept is widely used in colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. One study observed that up to 78% of these educational institutions employed University and College students as peer helpers, educators and para-professionals in support of various...

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Main Authors: HSI, Timothy, CHUNG, Ada Yee Lin
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2010
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/dos_research/1
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=dos_research
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spelling sg-smu-ink.dos_research-10002018-06-13T01:53:49Z Peer Helpers: Bridging the Gap between the Student Community and the University’s Counseling Service HSI, Timothy CHUNG, Ada Yee Lin Students helping students as a concept is widely used in colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. One study observed that up to 78% of these educational institutions employed University and College students as peer helpers, educators and para-professionals in support of various programs (Klein, Sondag & Drolet, 1994). Since 2003, the Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Centre for Counseling and Guidance (CCG) have actively promoted, trained and developed undergraduates to serve alongside the counselors as Peer Helpers. This is part of the overarching strategy of the Centre to build an "Emotional Safety Net" across the entire student community so that students experiencing emotional or mental health distresses would be quickly identified by a peer helper and attended to within the shortest possible amount of time. This paper outlines the structure, recruitment and training of the peer helpers as well as the focus of the program vis-à-vis the overall strategy of the CCG. In addition, we will discuss the impact of the program amongst the student community and the influence of the program in the shaping of positive helping-seeking behaviors as well as the general perception towards counseling and its benefits. 2010-07-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/dos_research/1 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=dos_research http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection Dean of Students Office eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University counseling university counselors peer helping wellness Asian Studies Higher Education and Teaching Student Counseling and Personnel Services
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
country Singapore
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic counseling
university counselors
peer helping
wellness
Asian Studies
Higher Education and Teaching
Student Counseling and Personnel Services
spellingShingle counseling
university counselors
peer helping
wellness
Asian Studies
Higher Education and Teaching
Student Counseling and Personnel Services
HSI, Timothy
CHUNG, Ada Yee Lin
Peer Helpers: Bridging the Gap between the Student Community and the University’s Counseling Service
description Students helping students as a concept is widely used in colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. One study observed that up to 78% of these educational institutions employed University and College students as peer helpers, educators and para-professionals in support of various programs (Klein, Sondag & Drolet, 1994). Since 2003, the Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Centre for Counseling and Guidance (CCG) have actively promoted, trained and developed undergraduates to serve alongside the counselors as Peer Helpers. This is part of the overarching strategy of the Centre to build an "Emotional Safety Net" across the entire student community so that students experiencing emotional or mental health distresses would be quickly identified by a peer helper and attended to within the shortest possible amount of time. This paper outlines the structure, recruitment and training of the peer helpers as well as the focus of the program vis-à-vis the overall strategy of the CCG. In addition, we will discuss the impact of the program amongst the student community and the influence of the program in the shaping of positive helping-seeking behaviors as well as the general perception towards counseling and its benefits.
format text
author HSI, Timothy
CHUNG, Ada Yee Lin
author_facet HSI, Timothy
CHUNG, Ada Yee Lin
author_sort HSI, Timothy
title Peer Helpers: Bridging the Gap between the Student Community and the University’s Counseling Service
title_short Peer Helpers: Bridging the Gap between the Student Community and the University’s Counseling Service
title_full Peer Helpers: Bridging the Gap between the Student Community and the University’s Counseling Service
title_fullStr Peer Helpers: Bridging the Gap between the Student Community and the University’s Counseling Service
title_full_unstemmed Peer Helpers: Bridging the Gap between the Student Community and the University’s Counseling Service
title_sort peer helpers: bridging the gap between the student community and the university’s counseling service
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2010
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/dos_research/1
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=dos_research
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