Traditionally, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) has answered the call for services across the university campus by responding to office, department and student group requests for individualized, structured workshops. CAPS will employ a systematic and relational approach to providing outreach services to the greater University of Houston community that will fully utilize our professional training and skills. Currently, outreach programming at CAPS consists of a 4-Tier System: facilitation of presentations, sponsoring campus wide events, liaison relationships with the broader University of Houston community and consultation with departments.

Outreach programming is a key element of CAPS services, which includes the development of effective training and workshops that promote learning. Food for Thought workshops are scheduled each semester at the UC to address various topics that will educate students and enhance skills. CAPS also offers QPR Suicide Prevention Training for the campus community. In addition, we would like to honor campus community requests for presentations on various mental health topics. In the event that we are unable to fulfill your request, we will consult with you to help you find another campus resource. In our efforts to develop workshops unique to our training and to work collaboratively with other student services offices, we will direct you to appropriate offices if a workshop is requested that is better served by another office. Two-session vocational workshops gives an opportunity to explore vocational alternatives by examining yourself and the world of work through vocational testing, values exploration, decision making, occupational information gathering, and life planning. Workshops are held at CAPS; please consult the schedules for the most current listings. Please consult the workshop schedule for the most current listings.

Annually, CAPS sponsors campus wide events including 5 National Mental Health Screening Days and two conferences: Diversity Institute (for the campus community) and the Professional Counselor Forum (for Houston area mental health professionals). Please consult campus wide events schedule for current listings.

Each CAPS staff member has an on-going liaison relationship with a department, office and/or student group at UH. This liaison relationship helps to bridge the gap between CAPS services and the campus community by educating the campus community on how to deal with students facing mental health issues. Specifically, the specified office can call to address concerns about student mental health issues, how to cope with a student that may be experiencing difficulties and how to refer to CAPS. In addition, the staff liaison can act as a direct referral source for that office or act as the key outreach program leader.

Consultation with the broader UH community involves evaluating situations and supporting the intervention of campus colleagues to manage these difficult situations effectively. The consultation process includes exploring the needs of the caller, gathering information, formulating a plan of implementation and planning post-consultation support.