UNC-Chapel Hill Reaches Out To Troubled Students on Internet

Lexington Dispatch (Lexington, NC): The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is using the Internet to reach out to troubled students. During the past two years, about 8,000 students received an e-mail message that directed them to an online questionnaire that helps screen for depression. More than 430 students have responded. Eighty-five came for more evaluation or treatment and more than three-quarters said they would not have done so without the e-mail contact, said researcher Jan Sedway. The e-mail communication fostered a trusting relationship in many cases, but Sedway said she was surprised by how reluctant some students were to seek help. "With many of them, it took 10 e-mail exchanges before they would come in. Many of them said they came in because they felt they knew me," Sedway said. Sedway communicated with one student via e-mail for a year while he studied abroad and when the student returned to the United States, he came in for counseling, she said.