The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 08, 1993, Survival Guide, Page Page 6, Image 20
Hospital allows ps^
By College Press Service
Troubled college students don't
have to interrupt their education
while hospitalized at a private psychiatric
hospital in upstate New
York because they stay in school
while working on the psychological
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The College Service of Saratoga
is a joint venture of Skidmore College
and Four Winds Saratoga hospital
at Saratoga Springs, N.Y. It
enables students to keep their student
status, complete aborted
coursework and remain insured
while gaining emotional stability
during a bout of mental illness.
In a cottage on a campus-like setting,
set apart from the main hospital
facility, as many as 15 college
students can be found poring over
textbooks when not tackling personal
issues in psychodrama, group
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"Hospitalization can be a tragedy
for students because it takes away
their identity as a student and puts
them in a sub-group, mental patient,
that is devalued," said Dr. Xavior
Mastrianni, founder of the program
and executive director of Four
Winds-Saratoga.
More than 400 students from 150
mostly Northeastern colleges and
universities have passed through the
seven-year-old program that officials
say is unlike any other in the
country.
"Being a student is the first identity
we have," Mastrianni said.
"We're someone's son or daughter,
then we are a student. It is critical
to maintain that identity."
When mental illness forces a student
to enter Four Winds, they
receive an academic assessment
along with a medical workup. Hospital
officials, with the student's
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/chiatric patients to
permission, request academic p;
records, have telephone conferences w
with faculty advisers and coun- d;
selors and make arrangements for tf
students to continue coursework at
neighboring Skidmore College. tf
Hosnital officials often reanest n
r 1
that the student's college or univer- w
sity grant an incomplete for unfin- di
ished course work rather than a failing
grade as if the student was on tl
an emergency medical leave. hi
"We do all we can to keep the
student's academic status," Mastri- f?
anni said, noting that when college p
students lose their insurance bene- p
fits and student status they have F
"lost their ticket to treatment." p
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fer from a variety of mental problems,
with 60 percent having some b
form of depression and 40 percent v
with a secondary diagnosis of drug n
and alcohol abuse, Mastrianni said, si
Students with eating disorders also d
make up a significant number of the p
hospital's younger population.
The average length of a Four h
Winds stay is 30 days, during u
which students can enroll in a Skid- b
more course, do independent study t<
as a special student or Finish pend- e
ing coursework by working with a
Skidmore faculty member who pro- n
vides tutorial assistance at the cot- s<
tage. s:
Education is one area most of the S
young people can excel in, Mastrianni
said, and Skidmore faculty e
members have reported that the stu- tl
dents from Four Winds are among s
the brightest they have taught. v
Unless the instructor comes to e
the cottage, Skidmore faculty are d
unaware that students are from the b
Four Winds program. ii
When students are ready to leave
Four Winds, about 50 percent take
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remain students
art in an aftercare program in
hich they attend school during the
ay and stay in hospital dorms in ^
le evenings. M
Unless students have symptoms I
lat are unusually severe, Mastrian- , J
i said he disagrees with counselors H
ho advise troubled students to J
rop out of school and take it easy.
"It disconnects the person from
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e said.
The idea that college is so stressjl
that students crack under the
ressure is false, Mastrianni said,
ointing out that half the group at H|
our Winds-Saratoga had been hositalized
before college and a third
ad been hospitalized twice before. H
"Though counseling services may
e undermanned, colleges can be
ery supportive settings," Mastriani
said, pointing out that healthy IW?
tudents thrive on the rigors of acaemic
life rather than finding the
ressure unbearable.
Mastrianni became motivated to m
elp struggling college students m :
/hen a young patient was advised
y college ornciais 10 taice a semes- grj,
ix off while she struggled with ^ c
motional problems.
"She spent two and a half ?
lonths in New York City by herelf
in her parents' apartment," he
aid. "Her parents were working. |
he didn't know what to do."
"You are better off re-entering an ^
nvironment that is more supportive j
hat stressful," Mastrianni said of
tudents returning to the college tr
/here they became ill. 'There are r
xceptions when some face great ^
ifficulty or they are so far behind, Cut
we find they are usually going
i the other direction."
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Emily Peterson/THE GAMECOCK
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