Responsibility

The Wellness Team functions with a focus first on safety and then on early intervention with students. The hope is to prevent an individual’s behavior from escalating and interfering with their ability to remain at North Park and successfully complete their coursework, as well as to prevent it from negatively impacting the campus community.

The team acts in a proactive manner to assist students and will:

• maintain confidentiality and handle all matters discreetly,
• provide consultation and support to faculty and staff,
• provide students with needed resources and/or referral information,
• recommend interventions,
• monitor and review ongoing behavior of students who have displayed disruptive or concerning behaviors.

Behaviors that violate the Student Code of Conduct are referred to Residence Life, if applicable, or the Dean of Students.

Wellness Team Confidentiality

Wellness Team records are confidential and will not be released except in accordance with applicable legal and professional standards of confidentiality, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). FERPA allows the release of student education records in health and safety emergencies when release is necessary to protect the health and safety of the student or the community.

If a student who is referred to the Wellness Team is already a client of Counseling Support Services and/or is a patient of Health Services, information about that student's contacts may not be obtained by the Wellness Team from those agencies without the written authorization of the student in question, in accordance with federal and state law, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (commonly known as “HIPAA”) and the Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act.

HIPAA was enacted to ensure the privacy and confidential handling of medical information for all patients in the U.S. It applies to all medical and mental health service providers. The Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act provides additional protections for mental health records. This protects all individually identifiable protected health information (PHI) maintained by North Park University. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, PHI includes data that relates to:

• the individual’s past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition, or
• the provision of healthcare to the individual.