Pitt-Greensburg Counseling Services Help Students Affected by Crosswalk Accident

Pitt-Greensburg’s counseling services have ramped up following the Nov. 14 crosswalk accident on campus in order to provide adequate services to the students and staff who have been affected.

Gayle Pamerleau, director of counseling, provides insight on what Pitt-Greensburg’s counseling services offer.

Pamerleau says, “A lot of what we cover with students is normalizing their experience: helping them to understand that not being able to think clearly, not sleeping well, and not being hungry are all typical reactions to an event like this. This reaction to trauma is really normal and it’s going to take a while for you to feel normal again.”

The campus’s counseling offices were quick to react accordingly once they caught wind of the accident that left one Pitt-Greensburg student hospitalized. Additional counseling time was made for students affected. Counselors soon after the incident were able to reach out to the students who may have been affected and in need of help.

“We certainly met with all the roommates and the people who were the first-hand witnesses who were involved when the accident first happened,” Pamerleau says. “Every time we were made aware of somebody who was there, somebody who was upset, or somebody who knew the victim, we reached out to that person and offered them counseling. Some people came, some people didn’t.”

Accommodations have been made for those students directly impacted by the accident who might be struggling with a heavy course load. In addition, counselors have helped inform professors and faculty on how to best help the students affected.

“I reached out to the faculty of the student who was injured and gave them information about how to handle the classroom conversations for their students about what had happened and the status of the student who was hurt,” Pamerleau says. “I also reached out to the faculty of the students who met with us who needed extensions on assignments.”

The Pitt-Greensburg Counseling Center is free and open to all enrolled students. The center is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. There is also a crisis walk-in hour available to students in the afternoon. Pitt-Greensburg also provides an anonymous peer support community called TogetherAll which students can access 24/7 free of charge.

To make an appointment with Pitt-Greensburg’s counseling services, call 724-836-9870 or email GBGCounseling@pitt.edu with your availability.