Faculty & Staff
- Why are there session limits?
While any staff member at CAPS may value the opportunity to provide long term counseling to students at Duke University, there is a need to impose some limits on the number of sessions a student may be seen at CAPS. There is a high demand for our services and many students would not be served if some limits were not imposed. After reviewing the level of demand, carefully balancing the needs of individual students with the needs of the overall university community, it was decided to limit the number of individual sessions to 15 per student, roughly the equivalent of a single semester if seen on a weekly basis. As is always the case, the counselor will use professional judgment if a student is in the midst of a crisis, and a student's safety will take precedence over previously identified session limits.
- How do I (or others in my department) communicate about a student once we've made a referral to CAPS?
- Once a professor or staff member at the university has directed a student to see a mental health professional at CAPS, they often wish to maintain communication about how that student is doing. However, once the student has been seen at CAPS and becomes a client, that student enters a confidential relationship and CAPS staff will not be permitted to confirm that the student is being seen or the status of that student without written permission to do so by that client. State law and professional codes of ethics require this level of confidentiality in order to protect the integrity of the counseling process, ensuring that students feel sufficiently safe to reveal very private experiences. At times, when it is appropriate to do so, a client may agree to sign a release of information so that CAPS staff can communicate with those who connected the student to services, in which case only information specified by the client and which would be useful in serving the client will be shared.