Brief BITs: Tabletop Trainings for the Behavioral Intervention Team

Author
Brian Van Brunt, Ed.D., President, NaBITA; Partner, TNG

Institutions of higher education seeking to create global citizens who are willing to help one another must be willing to support their own students when they’re in distress. Moral imperative aside, helping students is about more than doing the right thing for individuals in crisis. How institutions respond can make the difference in whether students are able to rebound and remain on track academically, or whether they fail out or withdraw from school. Sometimes, intervening to assist students in distress is not just about that individual, but about ensuring the safety of others on campus as well, something that institutions have a legal responsibility to do.

Behavioral Intervention Teams (BITs) are institutions’ best hope for identifying problems before students reach their breaking point, and implementing effective strategies to assist students in problem areas to ensure their success, as well as their safety and that of others. The most effective BITs are those that invest in the continued training of their members. The 25 case studies included in this book outline some of the more common mental health emergencies and behavioral problems that students tend to exhibit on college and university campuses.