COUNSELING SERVICES

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION PLAN

Julia Winterhalter
Professor Zammarelli
COM368
24 November 2020
Background:

College students face a variety of obstacles while trying to get an education that often

take a large toll on their mental health. Bryant University, home to over 3,000 students, offers

counseling services to help combat these issues. The counseling services department at Bryant

University have offered support to many students of all demographics across campus. Their

webpage states, “College students experience great challenges in both their academic and

personal lives. Change is constant, and stress often accompanies these new experiences.” There

are eight current staff members in the counseling office, five of which are counselors. The

counselors provide an outlet for students to feel comfortable sharing the struggles they face due

to college, family, relationships, athletics, etc., and provide professional advice for the student to

react responsibly. Bryant’s counseling services are offered free of charge, making it accessible to

a wider range of students, and they ensure confidentiality with every visit. They also offer

wellness programs such as yoga and meditation if a student finds that they will cope better

through those methods. Their official website provides links to and information of external

resources that students can use, such as off campus counseling throughout the state of Rhode

Island, and national resources for extreme cases, such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

and National Crisis Text Line.

A few of my friends have utilized these counseling services on campus, and I know of

others who have become more comfortable making appointments knowing that the services

being offered have given them positive results. However, there remains a lack of knowledge

about this department that prevents students from accessing the resources created specifically for

them. This strategic communication plan outlines opportunities that will be beneficial to Bryant’s

counseling services.
 Their office is located on the second floor of the Unistructure and operates Monday

through Friday from 8:30am – 4:30pm.

Mission:

Increase awareness and improve satisfaction of the counseling services at Bryant

University.

Measurable objective:

Increase awareness of counseling services and programs being offered at Bryant by 10%

for students struggling with their mental health

Desirable criteria:

 Create a more open and understanding environment on campus for students struggling

with their mental health

 Improve student satisfaction in the counseling services being offered

 Increase in student’s comfortability to utilize the on-campus counseling services

 Improve quality of counseling services due to higher demand and satisfaction of students

 Provide more career opportunities for counselors and interns in the office

Stakeholders:

- Counselors

o Employed to provide the services to students

o Impacted directly by the success of their treatments

- Students

o Counseling services are offered for the benefit of students

 o Engagement with these services creates wider awareness

o In need of a safe space to discuss anxiety and issues

- Parents

o Cannot always provide the same resources as a professional

o Want their child to feel comfortable on campus and talk to someone caring and

credible

o Can learn from the methods counselors use to help their child at home (such as

during breaks)

o Use resources provided to find other professionals outside of college near their

hometown

- Advisors

o Assist in balancing a student’s workload and mental health

o Course registration, GPAs, and exams stress students out. Students will want to

talk to their advisors about these problems as well.

o Better counseling services could allow students to feel better about maintaining

good grades

- Bryant university

o Service is offered by the university and should be monitored that the best services

are being offered to students

- Athletes

o Face some of the greatest amount of stress out of students because they need to

balance classes, work, and sports

 o Can greatly benefit from talking to a professional about stress and time

management

o Better coping mechanisms can lead to better game performance

- Professors

o Need to understand when the work they give students becomes too much

o Have a basic understanding of counseling and methods used to ease students’

minds

- Other professionals

o Rely on Bryant’s services to treat students in a more convenient and personal way

o Connection with counseling services brings them the potential of more patients

o Networking opportunities for counselors

Communication channels:

- Print

o Informational flyers to put up around campus

o Brochures to be given out at office front desk

o Directional flyers so people can find the office better

- Electronic

o Counseling services has an Instagram account that was created the beginning of

the Fall 2020 semester

 Posts relatively frequently about motivational quotes, tips for handling

mental health, and workshops put on by the department

  Links to their website and provides phone number and email to schedule

appointments

 Relatively low engagement with students

o Expand to more social media pages to promote counseling services (Facebook,

Twitter)

 Link to official website in bios

 Create interactive posts to engage more students

o Currently, they have a tab to the Bryant mobile app for easy access for students to

make appointments

 Brings directly to their website

 Ensures confidentiality

o Post professional studies on website about how counseling helps people

- Face-to-face

o Counseling services are offered privately in person so that students feel

comfortable sharing personal issues

 Direct communication with counselors

o Table set up in the roto with flyers and brochures to talk to students and spread

awareness

o Put on activities in the roto to make it a more relaxed environment

 Self-care materials, finals prep goodie bags

 Convenience of being in a popular location as students travel between

classes
 o Must recognize confidentiality requests, and not all students will want to talk in

public about the services

Partnerships:

- Active Minds

o A nonprofit organization supporting mental health awareness and education for

students. Through a partnership with them, counseling services can reach more

students and share resources with the club e-board

o Walks, monologues, guest speakers – can partner with counseling services at

these events

- Counseling Offices in Rhode Island

o Psychiatric Medication Management (RI)

o Clinics, nurses, practitioners in the Rhode Island area provided on the counseling

services website

o Shana Gietl, LMHC, Lincoln Psychiatric and Counseling Services, Inc., Carol A.

G. Gillen, LMHC, LLC, and Jon Cheney, LMHC

o These counselors offered outside of Bryant University can be a very helpful

resource during summer and winter break because the services on campus are not

available. These external counselors can connect students to more offices as well

because they are in a field connected to a wider demographic.

- Department of Psychology

o Psychology professors can collaborate with counselors to share research and

understandings of stress and its effect on the body and mind

 o Both professors and psychology students can add valuable insight to the services

already offered and come up with new ideas that would help individuals cope in

the best ways that work for them individually

- Counseling services provided at nearby universities

o Collaborating with other universities, such as Providence College or Johnson and

Wales University, will allow Bryant to better understand the counseling methods

that work well and those that do not

o Counselors can connect with one another to network and raise awareness of their

practices

Message:

Mental health is very important to understand and needs to be recognized in order for

students to feel comfortable talking about it. Counseling services are offered so that students

have an appropriate outlet for what is causing them problems. Boosting awareness of these

programs offered on Bryant University’s campus will allow more students to seek help and guide

them to confront their problems with productive solutions.