Counseling center launches new online interactive book

The Campus and Community Resource list is an interactive book with available resources for students and community members around Mankato. The Counseling Center recently launched a book for student use on their website. 

Counseling Center Office Manager Kim Bristol worked on the interactive tool to help students and community members find available resources on- and off-campus for different situations that may happen. 

“One thing that we have discovered is that there aren’t enough opportunities for students to find resources, because they are scattered. They are all over campus. There are a lot of things available that most people don’t even know about,” Bristol said. 

The idea to create a list with all available resources appeared a long time ago. Bristol said the Counseling Center was actively working for six months on creating this book and putting all of the resources together.

“We at one point had a student intern who was a social work major. And she was awesome because she would help us put together just resources in the community on campus. And when she graduated, we lost her. Then I decided that we could put together this book and take just any resources from wherever we could find them,” said Bristol.

The Campus and Community Resource list contains various resources, ranging from Crisis Resources to Veteran Services. It helps to learn important information about a particular resource and provides users with information regarding working hours, the website, and the location of the resource. 

“The nice thing about those pages is that we have, whatever (for example) insurance companies users choose, they can see what their hours are, their websites, all their contact information,” said Bristol. 

Moreover, the interactive book is intended to help students and may be a helpful tool for community members. 

“It’s geared towards MSU students, but it has things in the community. It has all of the local mental health agencies in the community that we refer students to, so if they come here, they use 10 sessions or they want to do more long-term counseling, we will refer them into the community,” Bristol said. 

The Campus and Community Resource list is available on the Counseling Center website and is completely online. According to Bristol, this helps students find resources at any time and not carry a heavy book with them. Users can also find the book using cards with QR-code that the Counseling Center shares with visitors. 

“Instead of having a 33-page book that people don’t want to carry around. They can take the QR code to access it whenever it’s convenient for them. It’s interactive because even on the table of contents, you can click on the page number, and it will take you exactly to the page,” said Bristol.

Header photo:The Counseling Center created an online book that’s full of resources, both on- and off-campus for students to utilize. (File photo)

Write to Amalia Sharaf at amal.sharafkhodjaeva@mnsu.edu