Family News Hartwick Peer Counseling Continues to Evolve

A Hawks in Flight Feature

Peer counseling services at Hartwick have been around for many years. Mostly recently, you knew it as Fifty-Fifty (50-50) Peer Counseling. This year, however, they’ve started refreshing their brand, updating it services, and are now the Hartwick Empathy Assistance Referral Team (HEART).

But while the name has changed, the goal is still the same: students helping fellow students by providing a safe, non-judgmental, and confidential counseling space. We recently spoke with Mental Health Counselors Shannon France and Hannah Rama, the team’s co-advisors, to discuss the program, name change, and future developments for their services.

When did 50-50 Peer Counseling start?

“Hartwick peer counseling dates back to the late 1980’s. Peer counselors ‘worked the phones’ and had ‘drop-in visits’ from students. In 1995, the title changed from simply ‘Peer Counseling’ to ‘Fifty-Fifty: A Peer Helping Service.’”

Why the recent name change?

“The change was made based on feedback from previous 50-50 members, students, and staff. We also based this change off of our own observations and experiences advising the group. The needs of our campus community have changed over the years, and the name change actively addresses these needs.”

What has been the student response?

“We have gotten positive student feedback so far, especially to the name change, and we hope to see more utilization of our services as the semester progresses. HEART members are being recognized while out and about on campus; we encourage folks to say ‘hey!’ Actually, a lot of students have been asking how they can get involved or how they can become a HEART counselor, some had even asked before officially becoming a Hartwick student!”

How can students become a HEART Counselor?

“The best way for students to show that they are interested in joining the effort is to use our services, get to know the current cohort of HEART counselors, and give us feedback about their experiences on campus. In order for us to get a genuine and honest understanding of what it is to be a student at Hartwick, we need to hear about current campus trends and events. This helps us tailor our outreach programming to be more relevant. Students have a voice to bring about change, and if we can help in any capacity, we would love to do that.”

Roughly how many students come to HEART a year?

“It’s been tougher to gauge given COVID, but we keep records of how many students we see. We don’t include their names or any identifying information, but we track the number of students, their class years, majors, and general issues addressed. Before COVID, the 50-50 folks saw on average 450 contacts a semester. COVID definitely took a toll on the 50-50 team. They weren’t getting many clients, and the previous members were negatively impacted by this. What should have been an enriching experience for them became more of a chore or obligation.”

Is there anything about HEART that you’d especially like the Hartwick community to know? For example, what is the most common misconception about your services?

“In the past, we have had to deal with some misinformation circulating that our peer services were not confidential, and that the students were not trained. This is, of course, utterly and completely false. HEART is a completely confidential resource for students. Our HEART counselors are trained and supervised by the Perrella Counseling Center. We hold weekly group meetings and have individual 1:1 supervision meetings with each counselor to ensure continuity of care. Ongoing supervision ensures that students are providing mental health services that follow best practices as put forth by the American Psychological Association and the New York State Office of Mental Health.”

Do you have future enhancements to your services slated?

“Right now, we are in phase one of our rebranding process. This includes the organizational re-naming, revamping our training, changing how we provide services, and creating a brand-new mission statement. This semester is essentially a testing period to gauge how the campus community responds to our outreach programming and workshops. We have quite a few ideas in the works related to future enhancements, but we first need to assess the effectiveness of our initial changes so that we can adjust as needed.”

For more on HEART Peer Counseling, follow them on Instagram, visit their webpage, e-mail them at e-mail HEART@hartwick.edu, or simply drop by their office in room 318, Dewar Hall.