Faculty/Staff Assistance and Well-Being Services (FSAWS)
Core Counseling Services
Assessment, Short-Term Counseling, and Referral: FSAWS offers confidential assessment of personal and professional concerns and short-term and solution-focused counseling to University of Illinois employees, retirees, and their household members. Examples of issues addressed include work-related issues, relationship and family concerns, grief and loss, substance use/addictions, stress, anxiety, depression, and other personal concerns.
Leadership Consultations: Consultation services are available for supervisors, administrators, department heads, deans, and other campus leaders regarding identification and intervention strategies with employees who are experiencing personal and/or work-related problems.
Crisis/Trauma Consultations/Debriefing: The FSAWS responds to campus and/or departmental crises through individual crisis intervention, individual or group debriefings, and consultations for supervisors or departmental leaders following a critical incident or traumatic event such as the death of a coworker.
Faculty/Staff Emergency Fund: The FSAWS administers an emergency fund grant program designed to bridge the gap when an employee’s income is disrupted due to a crisis situation.
Well-Being Services: Well-Being Services provides a wide array of life enhancement services and programs, including wellness programs presented directly to departments and other campus organizations. A variety of topics are available. For more information, contact Well-Being Services at (217) 265-9355 or by email at wellbeing@illinois.edu
Work Group Services
Work Group Services include:
Leadership Consultation: A discussion with unit leaders to determine the nature of the group's concern. These usually include issues such as:
- Transition and change
- Leadership and key personnel changes
- The environment of the work. This includes things such as group morale, group developmental adjustment, and promotion of a colleague to a leadership role
- Specific dynamics such as group polarization, fragmentation, and chronic retention difficulties
- Significant events that have collective impact. These include such things as seasonal shifts, loss of a co-worker, or policy changes
- Dysfunctional norms or roles that create toxic environments
- To assist in matching a service to a need, from both leadership and membership perspectives
- To encourage participation from various levels of organizational structure
- To separate blame from identifying solutions
- Improve group communication
- Encourage collective growth and development
- Identify obstacles to collective problem solving
- Accommodate complex faculty schedules
- Adjustment to the leadership role and personal growth demands
- Problem-solving focus (from one to six individual sessions)
- Center for Training and Professional Development for specific skill development
- Wellness Center for work/life balance needs
Presentation of Group Services: An in-service with staff to introduce work group services, to describe circumstances of typical requests for service, and to engage ownership processes. The desired outcome of this presentation is:
Group Structured Series: A four-part series consisting of combination of both individual and group meetings with the target group. The intention is to gain understanding of the role of avoidance in the problem-solving process and to address the underlying problem that faces the group. This series consists of two individual sessions with each person in the work group and two group sessions.
Faculty Process Series: A combination of individual meetings and/or group facilitation services for faculty groups, designed to:
Coaching Services: One or more meetings with an executive team, leadership team, or supervisor, concurrent with the Group Structured Series or Faculty Process Series.
Executive/Leadership Coaching: Leadership or executive team members may request individual meetings at any time during the delivery of services to a group.
It is recommended that the executive team meet with the facilitator at the mid-point and upon completion of group services.
Supervisory Coaching: This service encourages the development of the supervisor in his/her role. It addresses:
Mediation Services: This service provides conflict resolution involving 2 – 3 members of a work group. It consists of two individual meetings and two facilitated joint sessions.
Follow-up Services: Follow-up support for groups and individuals as requested or recommended.
Referral Services: Provides referrals as the situation warrants
Work group services are tailored to the specific issues that are affecting a group. Each process typically begins with a Leadership Consultation which can be scheduled through our office and can take place at a location most convenient for you. This one-hour meeting takes place with Morris Mosley, our work group specialist, and Karie Wolfson, our director. Leadership consultations should involve the group leader and anyone you feel may be helpful in understanding the group’s needs, which often includes a human resources or administrative staff member.
For more information, contact the Faculty/Staff Assistance and Well-Being Services at (217) 244-5312 or fsas@illinois.edu.