Counseling

Emergencies

Emergencies

If you have a crisis emergency while on campus, contact the Counseling Department immediately:

After Hours

  • Robert Young Center: 309-779-2031
  • 24-hour Crisis Intervention: 309-779-2999

Physical Safety Emergencies

  • BHC Police Department: 309-796-5911
  • Call 911. If calling from an on-campus phone, dial 5911.

Other emergency hotlines are available.

Counseling Services

Let's talk

All counseling services are free to current BHC students. To schedule a confidential appointment, please call, email or stop by our office on either campus.

During your first appointment, a professional counselor will:

  • Help clarify your concerns
  • Explore ongoing counseling needs
  • Determine if additional services would be beneficial

We will help you whether your concerns are personal, educational or social. We assist you in exploring alternatives, weighing consequences and learning new skills to help you cope with and resolve the problems you are facing. Everything you discuss during your counseling session will be completely confidential.

TimelyCare

As a BHC student, you have FREE access to TimelyCare telehealth services. Providers are available to offer medical and mental health support via phone or secure video.

Services offered

  • Medical (24/7): On-demand or scheduled access to a medical provider who can treat a wide range of common illnesses like cold and flu, sinus infection, allergies, and more
  • TalkNow (24/7): On-demand access to a mental health professional to talk about anything at anytime
  • Scheduled Counseling: Scheduled appointments to meet with a licensed counselor (limit 6 per year)
  • Psychiatry: Scheduled appointments available through a campus counseling referral
  • Free classes: Yoga, meditation, and other wellness oriented sessions
Visits can happen from any web-enabled device – smartphone, laptop, or desktop. TimelyCare is available from anywhere in the United States.
To get started, visit BHC's TimelyCare website or download the app and register an account with your student BHC email address.
Please note: BHC Counseling Services remains open and available to meet with students, both in person and online, just as we have been. The services available through TimelyCare are designed to expand and enhance our traditional services but might be particularly useful for students who are seeking a counselor from a particular demographic background or for those who are unable to meet for appointments during our traditional office hours.

Other Resources

Other Resources

  • Additional counseling resources include: emergency hotlines, online resources, veteran's counseling resources, mental health screenings, support groups and quit smoking support.
  • Benefits Navigator - Use this site to apply for and manage your healthcare, food, and cash assistance benefits. Check to see if you're eligible for SNAP benefits (formally food stamps), TANF, Aid to the Aged, Blind, and Disabled Cash; Illinois healthcare coverage - and apply for those benefits.

Quad-Cities Campus

  • Quad-Cities Campus local counseling resources - Clothing needs, domestic violence programs, food programs, health care resources (pregnancy, medication assistance, testing, etc.), housing resources, job assistance, legal assistance, rent/utility assistance and transportation.
  • Food Pantry

East Campus

  • East Campus local counseling resources - Clothing needs, domestic violence programs, food programs, health care resources (pregnancy, medication assistance, testing, etc.), housing resources, job assistance, legal assistance, rent/utility assistance and transportation.
  • Food Pantry

Counseling Events

Counseling Events

Be sure to keep an eye out for these special events hosted by BHC Counseling:

  • Social Services Fair at each campus in the fall.
  • Awareness month activities (lead by Peer Mentors).
  • Monthly stress relief events:
    • Pet therapy is provided by the Quad Cities Canine Assistance Network (QC CAN)
    • Yoga classes: take a break from studying and stretch with us in a FREE yoga class.
    • Art therapy: energize your brain! Drop in and create an art project - no experience or talent needed!
  • Gray Matters BHC gatherings

Events List

Student Clubs

Student Clubs & Organizations

The Gray Matters – Black Hawk Chapter

This student club's purpose is to educate, build community, and bring mental health awareness to anyone and everyone who needs it. Most importantly, we are working to create a world without suicide. We want to empower students and others to have the tools and knowledge to be mental health advocates and make a real difference in our world.

The BHC Chapter is part of The Gray Matters Collective.

All enrolled BHC students are welcome to be a part of the club!

View the Counseling Events list for dates and locations.

Peer Mentoring Program

What do Peer Mentors do?

They seek to raise awareness, provide education and serve as a resource to fellow BHC students on a wide variety of mental health issues.

How can they help YOU?

They will provide support, challenge you, commiserate with you, and be your cheerleader. Most importantly, they will listen!

To contact a peer mentor, email counseling@bhc.edu.

Meet the Spring 2024 peer mentors!

Suicide Prevention

Suicide Prevention

ASK!! Are you or is anyone you care about suicidal? Here are some links that may help. As always, you are more than welcome to talk to a BHC counselor about how to start the conversation, how to help someone you think might be hurting, or how to help yourself!

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Call the National Suicide Hotline at 800-273-TALK. Or call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

BHC Food Pantries

BHC Food Pantries

According to Hunger on Campus, 50 percent of community college students and 47 percent of four-year college students reported food insecurity. Twenty-five percent and 20 percent (respectively) had very low food security.

We have partnered with River Bend Food Bank to provide perishable and non-perishable food to any BHC student.

Even if you feel you have enough to eat, sometimes redistributing financial resources can help. Feel free to visit either BHC food pantry and use the money you had reserved for food for a different need.


Quad-Cities Campus Food Pantry: Hawk’s Cupboard

***NEW LOCATION: With the Building 3 remodel, the Hawk's Cupboard has moved to a temporary location.***

 Walk-up Location

Building 4, Restaurant (2nd floor, next to the Hawk's Nest) when there is a student worker present

 Drive-up Events

Available the first and third Wednesdays of the month during the fall and spring semesters. Please pre-register so we know how many bags to pack. Pull up outside Building 4 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and we’ll put bags of food in your trunk or back seat. Reminders with dates and a map will be emailed to every student before every drive-up event.

Spring 2024 QC drive-up dates:
  • Jan. 24
  • Feb. 7 & 21
  • March 6 & 20
  • April 3 & 17
  • May 8

Sign up for a Hawk's Cupboard drive-up date »

*Registration is available a week before each date until noon the Tuesday before.


East Campus Food Pantry: The Kitchen

 Walk-up Location

Building 1 (next to BHC’s EC Police Department)

 Drive-up Events

Available the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month during the fall and spring semesters. Please pre-register so we know how many bags to pack. Pull up outside Building 1 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and we’ll put bags of food in your trunk or back seat.

Spring 2024 EC drive-up dates:
  • Jan. 24
  • Feb. 14 & 28
  • March 13 & 27
  • April 10 & 24
  • May 8

Sign up for a The Kitchen drive-up date »

*Registration is available a week before each date until noon the Tuesday before.


Community Education Center Food Pantry - Kewanee

Sign up for the CEC Food Pantry »


Questions?

Email counseling@bhc.edu.

Want to make a donation?

Food and hygiene items can be dropped off at either campus' pantry at any time. You can also make a cash donation online.

Counseling FAQ

Counseling

All of our counselors have master’s degrees and extensive coursework of additional post-graduate study.

A counselor is a faculty member as well as a master’s degree-level professional trained in counseling. Counselors also work with faculty and staff as consultants and trainers.

An academic advisor is a professional staff or faculty member trained to assist students with academic planning. Advisors make referrals for various student concerns to counselors or other campus services.

Due to a high demand for services, and to ensure that the greatest number of students can receive services, the college sets a limit on the total number of individual counseling appointments students may receive. Please discuss the specifics of this policy with your counselor.

No, counseling can also assist with the following:

  • Adjusting to new surroundings/circumstances or a new culture
  • Building self-esteem
  • Choosing a major or career path
  • Coping with grief, loss and depression
  • Learning new communication skills
  • Learning stress management
  • Overcoming math or speech anxiety
  • Overcoming social anxiety
  • Resolving a conflict with a teacher, friend or relative
Category: Counseling

It’s nice to know you’re not alone. These are some of students’ most common concerns that we can help with.

  • Career development and decision-making
  • Academic and educational planning
  • Adjustment to college
  • Stress and time management
  • Study and test-taking skills
  • Anxiety
  • Improving relationships
  • Child and family issues
  • Domestic violence
  • Conflict resolution
  • Depression
  • Cultural/intercultural issues
  • Alcohol and substance use
  • Communication issues
  • Eliminating self-defeating behaviors
  • Grief and loss
  • Sexual assault
  • Concern for a friend
  • Referrals to community resources
Category: Counseling

Policies & Forms

Policies & Forms

Confidentiality

Your counseling information is confidential. No information about who is receiving counseling or the nature of their visits is released without the written permission of the person. Exceptions to this include subpoena, in cases of current child abuse, or if there is an expressed intent to harm one’s self or another. Black Hawk College counselors adhere to the ethical standards and practices of the American Counseling Association, Alexandria, VA.

Student Optional Disclosure

In accordance with the Student Optional Disclosure of Private Mental Health Act (IGP 59.1), Black Hawk College is providing students the opportunity to authorize, in writing, the disclosure of certain private mental health information to a designated person of their choosing.

The Student Optional Disclosure of Private Mental Health Information Act in the state of Illinois provides you with the opportunity to designate an adult whom you would like us to contact in the event that you experience a mental health emergency that puts you or others at risk for serious injury or death. You are not required to designate a contact. If you would like to designate an Emergency Mental Health Contact, please fill out the online form.

Student Mental Health Emergency Contact Release Form »

This Act states that an institution of higher learning may disclose mental health information if a qualified examiner makes a determination that the student poses a clear danger to himself, herself or others to protect the student or other person against a clear, imminent risk of serious physical or mental injury or disease or death being inflicted upon the person or by the student on himself, herself or another. The qualified examiner shall, as soon as practicable, but in no more than 24 hours after making the determination under this section, attempt to contact the designated person and notify the designated person that the qualified examiner has made a determination that the student poses a clear, imminent danger to himself, herself or others.

If you desire to designate a person who would receive certain private mental health information in such a situation, complete the form and indicate if you authorize, or decline to authorize, the disclosure of the information.