University Counseling Center
Annual Assessment Report
2013-2014
Contact: John S. Mitchell, LCSW, DCSW, Director
Division of Student Affairs
Armstrong Atlantic State University
2013-2014 Annual Assessment Report
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I.
MISSION
Armstrong’s University Counseling Center provides services to help students
grow and develop, overcome personal problems, and learn the coping skills they
need to succeed in meeting their academic goals. Students will be helped to
appreciate their own identity and culture of origin.
II.
PROGRAM SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES
A. Usage statistics from June 1, 2013 to May 15, 2014
1. Individual counseling sessions: 1 ½ hours
For initial intake session, and Alcohol and Drug Education
sessions, 1 hour regular session, 2 hours or more for emergencies.
a. 2425 sessions scheduled (5% increase from fiscal year 2013)
b. 147cancellations and 344 no shows (491 total is 20% of our
scheduled as compared to 21% in FY 2013)
c. 1934 face-to-face sessions (7% increase from FY 2013)
2. Psychiatric appointments: ½ hour initial evaluation and 15 minute
follow-ups
a. 435 appointments scheduled (increase of 8% from FY 2013)
b. 13 cancellations and 84 no shows = 97 total (22% of total
appointments scheduled compared 17% in FY 2013
c. 313 face-to-face sessions with MD (3% increase from FY 2013)
3. Classroom Presentation totals:
a. 27 presentations (same as FY 2013)
b. 856 students in attendance (9% increase from FY 2013)
B. Activities of staff
1. AASU Committees
a. Academic Advisement
b. Behavior Assessment Team
c. Safe Space
d. Sexual Violence Response and Prevention
2. Campus/Divisional Activities
a. Navigate
b. HOLA Scholars Presentation
c. R. A. training
d. House calls
e. New Faculty Orientation
d. Health and Wellness Fair
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e. Midnight Breakfast
f. Safe Space
g. MLK dinner
h. Green Zone training
i. Liberty Center presentations
3. Presentations
a. “U Da Man” Sexual Assault Prevention Panel Member
b. GCCA Annual Conference/Safe Space Presentation with
Nashia Whittenberg
c. CSWA/GCCA College Counseling Program Presenters
d. Suicide Prevention Conference Planning Committee
Member and presenter
e. Center Directors Association Spring meeting Panel Presentation
member
4. Conferences attended by staff (2 days or longer)
a. SCCP Annual Conference
b. GCCA Annual Conference
c. NASW Annual Conference
d. LPCA Annual Conference
e. CSWA Annual conference
f. Behavioral Health Suicide Prevention Conference
g. Risk Assessment Training Conference
h. Unspoken Wounds/Veterans Trauma Conference
5. Workshops/addiction training
a. Twenty additional clinical training workshops were also
attended to help keep staff updated with the latest
clinical trends
III.
LEARNING GOALS
A. Students will learn to improve their problem solving and coping skills.
B. Students will improve their decision-making skills and goal setting skills
C. Students will achieve greater insight and understanding of self
IV.
Assessment Tools Used
A. Assessment of Individual Counseling
1. The assessment tool used was the “Student Feedback Form. It was last
revised 01/09. The form includes questions about age, gender, ethnicity,
year in college, number of counseling sessions attended at time of filling
out the survey, and reasons for seeking counseling.
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2. It has 16 questions that address learning outcomes, satisfaction and
quality issues on a 5-point scale. (1= strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree).
It has four open ended questions. Two about “the most helpful” and Least
helpful” aspect of services received, one that asks about what new
services would like us to have in the future, and one that asks what
reaction do you have to your counselor that you would like him or her to
know?” They are kept at a desk in the back of the counseling center and
students are encouraged to fill one out after one or more sessions.
B. Assessment of classes, seminars and groups
1. The assessment tool used is the “Group/Seminar Evaluation form. It has a
5 point scale that lets the student rate the facilitator, learning outcomes
and quality of the presentation with four questions. It also has three open
ended questions that ask about what the most helpful and least helpful
part of the seminar was for them, along with suggestions for future topics.
Students in the class are given feedback forms, fill them out and turn
them in at the end of the class until we have a large enough sample.
V.
Results of Key Assessments
A. Outcome Goals of Individual Counseling Session
1. Eighty percent (80%) of students surveyed will respond to the target
statements with either a “5 = strongly agree” or a “4 = agree” based on a 5
point scale
B. Evaluation based on “Student Feedback” form (N=44)
1. Goal: Students will improve their problem-solving and coping skills
Target statements and end of year outcome:
“Counseling has helped me learn better coping skills” (93%)
“Counseling has helped me improve my problem-solving skills” (95%)
2. Goal: Students will improve their decision making and goal setting skills
Target statement and end of year outcome:
“Counseling has helped me improve my ability to make decisions and set
goals” (98%)
3. Goal: Students will achieve greater insight and understanding of who they
are and why they are in college
Target statements and end of year outcome:
“My counselor has helped me understand myself better” (95%)
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4. Goal: Receiving Counseling services will have a direct effect on student
retention:
Target statement and end of year outcome:
“My counseling sessions have helped me stay in school” (89%)
5. Average across all measures was 94%
C. Outcome Goals of Group/Seminar Training Sessions
1. Eighty percent (80%) of those surveyed will respond to the target
statement with either a “5=strongly agree” or a “4=agree” based on a 5
point scale
D. Evaluation based on “Group/Seminar Evaluation” form (N=326)
1. Goal: Students will learn needed skills to help them succeed in school
Target statement and end of year outcome:
“I learned new skills that will help me succeed academically” (94%)
E. Additional Outcomes Measures (% that chose either 4 or 5)
1. Individual Counseling
a. “I have experienced improvement in the condition or problem for
which I sought services” (94%)
b. “My counselor has helped me reduce my stress level” (90%)
2. From Group/Seminars evaluation form
a. “I would recommend this (group/seminar) to others” (97%)
F. Responses to open ended questions
1. Student Feed Back Forms (N=44)
a. 77% wrote a comment in response to the “Most helpful aspect of
services I have received?” All (100%) of the comments were positive,
with the majority being very positive.
b. 40% wrote a comment in response to “the least helpful aspect is?”
1.) 66% put “N/A” or “None.” In response to this question
2.) The remaining 34% talked about the difficulty in getting
appointments due to our busy schedule
c. 34% wrote a comment in response to “What new services would you
like to see us have in the future?”
1.) Again the number one response (53% was “N/A.”
2.) One person mentioned “More psychiatrist time.”
3.) One student asked for support groups
4.) The rest of the responses were also single requests, with my two
favorites being “a meditation center,” and “more therapy puppies.”
d. 66% wrote comments in response to “What reactions do you have to
your counselor that you would like her/him to know?”
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1.) Comments were 94% positive with comments about a counselor
being “too busy” and one about a counselor being “sometimes
distracted.” being the two exceptions. My favorite response to this
question was: “She’s crazy awesome!”
2. Group/Seminar Evaluation (N=326)
a. 248 (76%) responded to “What was the most helpful part of the
group/seminar?” with positive comments about the specific things
they liked
b. 158 (48%) responded to “What was the least helpful part of the
Group/seminar?”
1.) 62% of these comments said “Nothing everything was great,” etc.
2.) 18% wrote “N/A”
3.) 10% wrote that the discussion about caffeine was not helpful to
them because they did not drink coffee.
4.) 2% said they thought the presentation was too long
5.) The rest were individual comments about the time of day or the
fact that they already used a planner
c. 130 students (40%) responded to the “Comments and/or suggestions
for future presentations”
1.) 60% simply gave positive comments such as “Great presentation,
very helpful information, etc.
2.) 20% responded with “N/A”
3.) 12% said they liked the speaker and suggested he do more
presentations
4.) The rest were single suggestions (each representing .003% of the
total) such as:
a.) “Present this at orientation”
b.) “Speak louder”
c.) “Make the whole class do stress reduction exercises together”
d.) “Free massages”
e.) “Make it shorter”
f.) “Don’t do this on Friday”
VI.
New Developments
A. We have received additional resources which will allow us to schedule two
additional 3 hour session with our psychiatrist and bring our yearly total of
MD sessions up from 24 to 26.
VII.
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Changes in Program/Service Delivery based on Responses to Assessments
University Counseling Center
A. Individual Counseling
1. Every year we get comments from students who want to be seen sooner
or wait less time between. Over the years we have increased staff. But
still don’t have enough staff to be available as fast as some students would
like, especially during our busiest periods, between midterm and finals.
2. The student who requested “more doctor appointments” will see two
additional appointment times over the next 12 month period, as our MD
was getting overbooked.
3. The student who asked for a support group did not specify what sort of
group they were interested in and did not include their name so we are
not able to respond to this request at this time.
B. Group/Seminar
1. We did not get much feedback that gives us any consensus about any
needed changes for our Stress Reduction and other presentations at this
time.
2. The student who suggested we present at orientation will see us doing
four presentations on “How College is Different from High School” at each
of the Navigate sessions.
C. Assessment Plan
1. We have made several updates on both our assessment forms over the
years and they appear to be tracking our learning goals effectively. As a
result, we will keep them in place for the next assessment period.
VIII.
Unit Support for Current Year
A. We have a full time Director with a LCSW who supervises a full time LPC and
a 10 month LCSW, along with a full time Administrative Assistant who
supervises a part time student worker
B. Budget allocations are currently adequate to provide our current level of
services, but each year the demand for our services goes up. This is due to
“word of mouth” referrals where students we serve send their friends to see
us, who then send their friends, etc., and also the residual effect of students
that stay in our care over the entire course of their stay at Armstrong so they
can access our MD and get needed medications, services that they cannot
afford otherwise. To provide more services, the next step would be to move
my 10 month counselor to full time. If our enrollment ramps up ,and demand
continues to grow, we would need more office space and an additional
counselor on a part time or 10 month basis.
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