Listening

For close to 30 years, Francis King has been lending a sympathetic ear and his professional skill to troubled Dartmouth students. Now director of mental-health counseling services, he suspects that a greater proportion of the student population is seeking help from official sources than when he first came to the College as a counselor and an instructor in psychology.

But that may or may not mean more troubled students, he says. As well as a changing college and a changing world, it may reflect more sophisticated services and broader acceptance of the concept of professional counseling. In his early days here, when the faculty was on the average older, if not wiser, and the scholarly scramble less intense, personal relationships between professors and students were more conducive to informal counseling. "And the bulk of it still takes place after class, in faculty offices, and on street corners," he adds quickly.

"Life was a lot simpler then for the students too," he says. "The rules were clear-cut. They knew exactly what was expected of them, and the consequences of violating the rules." Whatever the benefits of greater freedom, greater diversity, wider options, liberated sexual mores, they add a burden of more confusion, more difficult choices, King suggests. "When ! went to college," he recalls with a grin, "a big, burly football player in charge of our corridor told the freshmen, 'Remember this. There are two rules for the dormitory: no liquor and no women - and the second one is enforced.' "

King estimates that about ten per cent of the students turn up for professional counseling at some time in their college careers, with no age or class preponderant. Women seek help more often than men - as they use all health services more freely - not necessarily because they have more problems, but because they seem less hesitant to admit them. Complicating academic pressure these days is the state of the economy, which has intensified worry about grades and jobs and graduate-school admission. Despite talk of "January blahs" and late-winter "cabin fever," demand on counseling services - for undergraduates, at least - peaks in May when seniors are facing the uncertainties of life-after-Dartmouth and all students must confront the accumulated academic problems of the year.

The deans are the front-line in referring students headed for trouble, and King gives them high marks for understanding the need for absolute confidentiality. "They are very good about realizing they're on a one-way street with information. They don't expect any follow-up reports." The students are very responsible, he says, in expressing concern about a friend in serious difficulty, although they're hesitant to call attention to minor problems, lest they seem to be "ratting."

Depression, with overtones of anxiety - not necessarily severe - is the most common problem, and the specific complaint is very likely to be "I can't concentrate." It seems an acceptable entree to counseling, King says, and opens the door to discussion of underlying concerns. Even in the heyday of "tripping," Dartmouth had comparatively few severe drug-related problems, and those that did occur the students often handled themselves. There's a trickle nowadays of students concerned about their own drinking, which he sees as a reflection of "society slowly shifting its attitude toward alcohol abuse."

A good fatherly-motherly-sisterly- brotherly talk suffices for some students; others benefit most from group therapy, wherein they can discuss common problems. There are or have been groups for women students and for student wives, human sexuality groups, personal development groups, and groups using a behavioral approach to weight control. Dartmouth has no crisis center per se, Dr. King says, "because fortunately we're well-staffed and flexible enough to respond to emergencies." In addition to a professional staff of five - some of whom have teaching duties at the Medical School - the services of the Dartmouth- Hitchcock Mental Health Center, where a psychiatrist is always on call, are available as needed.

General counseling, formerly based in College Hall, has recently been consolidated into mental-health counseling services at Dick's House, to the distress of some students who claim that the relative inaccessibility and a psychological obstacle may prevent people who need help from seeking it. King's response is that consolidation has led to better coordination and greater flexibility and that faculty members, deans, chaplains, and Tucker Foundation personnel are still available for counseling on the campus. As for accessibility: "We're busy," he says, "so the students must be finding their way."