NIU students faced with chemical dependency problems don’t necessarily need to leave campus to seek help for their troubles.

As reported last week in The Northern Star, DeKalb’s Ben Gordon Community Health Center has helped many people cope with the treatment and aftershocks of their drug or alcohol problems.

But NIU’s Counseling and Student Development Center offers a full assessment and treatment referral program students can take advantage of anonymously.

“While many of the students that come here for substance abuse treatment are referred to us by, say the student Judicial Office or the campus housing board, some students do come in on their own for help,” said Darsha Primich, a social worker at the NIU Counseling and Student Development Center.

Primich said the primary services offered to students are referrals to appropriate treatment facilities.

“I don’t use the DUI assessment scale used by the State of Illinois,” she said. “Instead if a patient appears addicted I definitely refer them, sometimes to a treatment group or a workshop.”

Primich said the structure of the program they use to treat students depends on the individual case.

“We might have a very focused series of sessions or instead have an open-ended program,” she said.

Like many programs similar to it, the first sessions of NIU’s counseling program are designed to pinpoint the problem and then set up a program to treat that problem.

“We try to work on insight orientated parts of the problem, namely the ‘whys’ of behavior,” Primich said.