BCUnited is a ‘first responder’ to the BC Cares Form
Bridgewater College Students Have a Tool to Get Professional Help for Their Peers
The BC Cares form can be located on the MYBC page and is a method for students to obtain professional help for their peers. The form has been recently updated to include concerns of COVID- 19.
October 6, 2020
Bridgewater, Va. – The BC Cares form is used to report various types of concerning behaviors that students may present such as illness, injury, or mental health concerns. If a student is worried about a fellow peer they are encouraged to fill out the BC Cares form.
Students can locate the document on the MYBC webpage and the Bridgewater College general website, explained Assistant Dean of Students Liz Howley.
The BC Care Team promotes this form through word of mouth, freshman orientation, soar monitors, FILA instructors, and social media platforms like instagram.
The BC Care Team developed the document five years ago and modeled it after other colleges’ similar documents.
“BC Cares is a multidisciplinary team of faculty and staff across campus ready to help with a variety of concerns,” said Howley.
Around midterm and finals season is when the BC Care Team sees a high peak of form submissions, even a few forms are filled out from concerned parents, added Howley.
Organizations such as BCUnited “are like our first responders” in encouraging students to use the form, explained Howley.
“The BC Cares option is a super easy way for students to have trained professionals reach out to their peers to help. It’s okay to not know how to have those conversations as long as you know there are resources available,” said BCUnited member Kylee Lorio.
Lorio explains that some students view the form as “ ratting out a friend, that it causes a friend to get in trouble, or that reporting someone’s mental health concern will lead to them being institutionalized.”
When filling out the form it can be completely anonymous,“but most of the time they are not anonymous, because students want someone to know what’s going on” stated Howley
The Bridgewater College campus community should be reassured that the “BC Cares can be something as simple as your friend’s RA coming to their room to ask how their week went. It can be a professor sending an email. It can be an offer for an academic coach. It’s hard to reach out to people on your own” said Lorio.
In October, Bridgewater College students should expect to receive an email reminding them about the BC Cares form.
