The CARE Team

The Mission of the CARE Team is to promote the health and safety of the campus community and individual members by coordinating information including longitudinal track of behaviors and developing support plans for students with concerning behavior.

The Team’s purpose is to:

• Identify, access, and monitor students displaying moderate to extreme levels of distress, disruption, and or behavior, such as homicidal, suicidal, assaultive or self-injurious threats.
• Implement timely interventions that protect the safety of the BHCC community at large, and the welfare of individual students.

The CARE Team serves as the centralized coordinated body for discussion and action regarding students exhibiting behaviors that indicate distress, cause a disturbance in the community, and/or present a danger to oneself or others. Concerns regarding behavior on the part of faculty or staff will be referred to Human Resources and reports on visitors will be referred to the Office of Public Safety and Campus Police.

Committed to proactive, early intervention, the CARE Team supports students directly and through consultation with campus and community partners. When necessary, the CARE Team works with the Crisis Intervention Team to the College community and coordinates appropriate action to ensure the safety of individual students and the College at large.

• Receive, review, and catalogue information about concerns regarding a student’s behavior;
• Perform initial behavioral assessment and, as needed, refer cases to other College officials for further assessment;
• Develop specific strategies and protocols to manage a student’s potentially harmful or disruptive behavior in order to protect the safety and rights of both the individual and other community members;
• Make recommendations to College officials on appropriate actions consistent with College policies and procedures;
• Engage in ongoing refinement of Team procedures, especially intervention strategies and protocols;
• Provide for on-going professional development and education in relevant areas; and
• Identify College policy and procedural issues that interface with Team activities, such as the Code of Conduct and attendant judicial procedures, student withdrawal and re-entry policies, and the Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). Note: If and when necessary, the Team defers to the Office of Public Safety and Campus Police, which will activate the Emergency Operations Plan.

Responsibilities of the Chair include:

• Set the agenda for and facilitate meetings;
• Manage meeting time;
• Work with College counsel to assure appropriate record keeping and other procedures;
• In cooperation with others, coordinate and triage referral of students of concern from offices across campus;
• Coordinate activation of the Team and other relevant committees as appropriate; and
• Post-meeting follow-up.

Responsibilities of CARE Response Coordinators:

• Receive email notifications from electronic reports and respond within 1 business day.
• Screen reports that need immediate referrals to Campus Police for emergency response.
• Assemble the CARE team for response to issues in-between scheduled meetings.
• Be available on-call after hours.
• Keep longitudinal notes on all reports.
• Report aggregate data on a semester basis.

Meetings and Response to an Incident:

The Team will meet weekly and as needed. When notified of a significant behavioral incident, the Team will initiate a full and prompt assessment. Based upon the findings, the Team will recommend one of the following actions:

• No further action is needed;
• Additional information is needed to evaluate the situation based on a rubric such as the National Behavioral Intervention Team Association Threat Assessment Tool (See Appendix I);
• Refer to BHCC’s Code of Conduct and attendant judicial procedures for appropriate disciplinary action;
• Refer for further assessment pursuant to BHCC’s withdrawal and re-entry polices; and
• Refer the matter to the Office of Public Safety and Campus Police.

• Increase identification of students whose behaviors are cause for concern;
• Discuss situations brought to the Team’s attention by any member of the College community seeking guidance on disruptive and/or problematic behaviors that might lead to aggression or self-harm;
• Centralize the process of collecting and assessing “red flags” raised by student behavior and documented by different sources within the College before there is a crisis;
• Develop a coordinated plan to help students in crisis, mitigate risk, facilitate early intervention and protect and maintain campus safety;
• Coordinate follow-up with the student to ensure that recommended services, support and resources are deployed effectively;
• Balance FERPA, HIPAA, Disability laws, and counselor privilege with College need-to- know and the need for emergency communication; and
• Protect the campus community in cases of imminent threats to self or others.