Help is out there.
Students in need of a receptive ear or an outlet for their problems need to look no further than the Reach-A-Peer Helpline.
Founded in 1990 by three undergraduates who saw a need for a student-run support venue, the RAP-Line -- 215-573-2RAP -- is available seven nights a week from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. to field students' calls.
The idea was to make a support network available at night when professional services are traditionally closed and students are still active.
And to the organizers and users of the service, it is an invaluable tool.
"What a RAP-Line person can do is the equivalent of a massage for stress," RAP-Line advisor Kate Ward-Gaus says. "What a gift it is to have somebody for 'x' amount of minutes whose sole purpose is to listen to you."
Approximately 60 students -- both graduates and undergraduates -- are currently members of the RAP-Line team, but to get to that point, they underwent an extensive application and training process.
A little more than half of the applicants for the program are accepted, and following their acceptance, they are required to undergo a 40-hour intensive training period. The training starts with a weekend-long seminar followed by continuous weekly meetings.
Ward-Gaus says they look for students with whom the University population can relate.
"If it's a peer line, we have to have a group that's diverse," Ward-Gaus says.
But while the training is extensive, members of the RAP-Line insist that they are not a crisis center -- and their advertisements state this distinction clearly.
"Students can't intervene," Ward-Gaus says. "There is no tracking device. They're not allowed to say 'What's your name? Where are you?'"
Part of the reason for this protocol is the group's assurance that all of the calls received will remain both confidential and anonymous.
But keeping the anonymity on both ends of the line can be something of a challenge.
"If I saw someone from the line, and a friend says, 'How do you know them?' I'd have to make something up and say 'I met them in an elevator' or something," RAP-Line President Shira Robinson, a College senior, says.
But Robinson says that all the effort to remain anonymous is worth the success of the group.
"I've taken a three-hour call," she says. "It's more quality than quantity. You get off the phone, and you're just exhausted."
For the five hours the line is open, the group says it receives only a handful of calls, but it's enough to keep the organization alive.
"We will never say that we're over-utilized," Ward-Gaus says. "They get enough calls to keep them busy and satisfied, but there's always room for more."
Of the calls the group does receive, most fall into the categories of life issues -- primarily relationship problems, academic questions and concerns about unstable friends.
"Usually we get a call somewhere around the Econ exam," Ward-Gaus says.
And while the student volunteers deal with each of these issues in an individual way, there are certain methods they use throughout.
"We have an opening statement, something like, 'What's on your mind tonight?'," Robinson says. "And then it's basically trying to develop a rapport. I've ended up talking about movies, just to break the barrier. Then there's information-gathering, exploring feelings, paraphrasing, verbal nods, role-play, a lot of open-ended questions... and then we have a whole referral database."
The volunteers have information about emergencies, police, victim support, rape crisis help, suicide prevention, health education and counseling and psychological services on hand for referral use.
