Resources For Faculty, Staff, and Families

• Visit the Red Folder website for resources and guidelines, and review the Red Folder Toolkit below
• Contact CAPS for a consultation
• Visit our Mental Health Crisis Intervention page or contact the Penn State Crisis Line at 1-877-229-6400
• Use our  community provider locator to locate private mental health care providers in Penn State communities. 

The Red Folder is designed to guide individuals who interact with students to recognize, respond effectively to, and refer Penn State students experiencing distress. This set of steps will navigate you through learning how to use the Red Folder, as well as how groups (i.e. academic departments, staff units, community programs, etc.) can learn and refine this important set of skills:

1. Bookmark or create a desktop shortcut to The Red Folder website.
2. Locate your print copy of the Red Folder. Don’t have one? Make a request.
3. Complete The Red Folder course on the Penn State Learning Resource Network:

• Log in to the Learning Resource Network (LRN) with your Penn State account.
• Follow this link to The Red Folder LRN course.

OR

• Log in to the Learning Resource Network (LRN) with your Penn State account.
• In the search bar enter the search term: “The Red Folder”
• Select “The Red Folder” online class.

Do you want to supplement this information with an overview of CAPS services? Watch the annual CAPS Services and Common FAQ webinar recording.

• If you are concerned about a student’s immediate safety or the safety of others, contact the 24/7 Penn State Crisis Line at 1-877-229-6400 or call local police at 911.
• If you are not concerned about someone’s immediate safety, review the Red Folder Toolkit at the top of this page for assistance making decisions and identifying resources to best help a student.
• To consult about a student of concern, call CAPS to speak with a clinician to learn more about how to offer support and take next steps.
• Please do not email individual CAPS clinicians about a student of concern, as a phone call is the most efficient method for communicating with CAPS.

• Support the student to contact CAPS to schedule a phone screening (814-863-0395).
• Phone screenings with a CAPS clinician are the first step toward care and are typically scheduled within 1-2 days of calling CAPS. We prioritize students’ urgent needs.
• These phone screenings help identify a next step and may include a variety of opportunities that can begin immediately, including clinics, WellTrack Boost, drop-in support groups, or tele-behavioral health coaching.
• Our clinicians can help students identify a variety of helpful resources, including stress management workshops, mindfulness clinics, self-directed help and wellness resources, CAPS Chat opportunities (a drop in individual consultation aimed toward immediate problem solving and support), and more. To comprehensively address their needs and concerns, students can also expect to be referred to additional support options on-campus and in the local community.

• We prioritize urgent needs, so high risk and safety concerns are addressed with haste.
• Phone screenings with a CAPS clinician are the first step toward care and are typically scheduled within 1-2 days of calling CAPS.
• Much of the time someone’s report of “a wait” is referring to routine short-term individual therapy services, which is only one of a multitude of clinical and wellness services recommended to students.
• When scheduling, we match our clinicians’ availability with students seeking routine services. During high and low volume times of year, the therapist assignment process can fluctuate.
• Students are offered adjunctive services to support them if they are awaiting therapist assignment, which commonly include other clinical and wellness services.
• Students are encouraged to contact CAPS if their needs change to allow a movement from routine to urgent services more seamlessly.
• There can sometimes be confusion among the three different counseling options on campus, which have different services and processes. When speaking with someone about on-campus counseling experiences it helps to understand if someone is referencing the Herr Clinic (housed within the College of Education), the Psychological Clinic (housed within the Psychology Department) or Counseling and Psychological Services (a Division of Student Affairs).

• Students are encouraged to contact CAPS if their needs change to allow a movement from routine to urgent services more seamlessly.
• If you are concerned about a student, call CAPS during business hours (814-863-0395) or the 24/7 Penn State Crisis Line (1-877-229-6400). The more information you share, the better we are able to support a student.

• CAPS often helps to identify appropriate resources for students in need, both on- and off-campus.
• On-campus services and off-campus community resources often collaborate but are provided oversight by disparate agencies (Penn State vs. community resources).
• Students are offered support by CAPS providers to identify external resources that best fit their needs. In this process, students are also empowered to be agents of their individual wellness.
• Licensed private practitioners in the community are monitored by the state board and have no oversight by Penn State University. Unfortunately, we don't have a mechanism to bypass community waitlists for those students identified as benefitting from long-term or specialized treatment. In addition to a community provider locator for individuals to seek local private practitioners at their convenience, CAPS offers case management services to assist students to develop agency in utilizing their insurance benefits.

• Review the annual CAPS Services and Common FAQ webinar for details and clarifications about our services.
• Review the Red Folder Toolkit at the top of this page and learn more about the Red Folder initiative across the Penn State campuses.