UCLA offers online counseling for LGBT students

Chad Lazzari hopes a new online program will help him reach out to students who may be struggling with their sexual identity the way he did before coming out.

The third-year psychology student is one of six peer advisers for Rainbow Connection, an anonymous online counseling service housed in the UCLA Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Campus Resource Center. The new service launched Tuesday night.

Rainbow Connection aims to provide additional support for students struggling with both gender and sexuality issues. It also plans to give information about campus resources for allies and members of the LGBT community.

Lazzari said he struggled with his own identity for years before he gained self-acceptance. He said he bullied his peers at his high school to compensate his own internal strife. In his early 20s, however, he meet other gay people with whom he identified.

Now, Lazzari said he wants to help other students.

Leiza Castillo, a third-year English student who identifies as a member of the LGBT community, said she thinks Rainbow Connection will help the students who are still trying to figure out their sexual and gender identity without going to the center directly.

“It’s a great resource for those who are not ready to make that next step to come out but need support,” Castillo said.

The program is anonymous for both student advisers and participants.

Raja Bhattar, the director of the LGBT Campus Resource Center, said he thinks the new service will help students feel comfortable because it is online.

“Being a millennial generation, students tend to be more comfortable online and anonymous,” Bhattar said.

Kate Gray, a third-year communication studies student and student adviser for the Rainbow Connection, said she hopes the chat room setting of the program gives students who are not comfortable going into the LGBT center the forum to ask a quick question or talk about their issues privately.

To use Rainbow Connection, UCLA undergraduate and graduate students will receive a username once they sign into the initial screening process, Bhattar said.

After signing in, students will enter the formal chat room where student advisers guide conversations in the forum, provide additional information for students and start private conversations with students looking for individual support, he added.

After the LGBT center accepted possible student advisers, Gray said she and the other accepted applicants underwent training through UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services for preventing suicide, discussing identity issues and guiding students to the available resources on campus.

Student advisers learned basic counseling skills and practiced different scenarios to prepare for the actual chat room, said Amanda di Bartolomeo, a counselor for Counseling and Psychological Services and a co-adviser of the program.

In addition to the student advisers, a licensed clinical psychologist will give immediate consultation should a crisis occur, di Bartolomeo said.

Bhattar said he screens potential chat room participants by checking their student identification number to verify that they currently attend UCLA and can be identified if they threaten to harm themselves or other people.

Lazzari said he and the other student advisers are excited to see how the UCLA student body will receive the new service.

He added that he hopes that the new counseling service will reach the members of the UCLA community who are seeking help and will help students be more comfortable with who they are.

“I hope the Rainbow Connection will be part of the solution,” he said.

The online chat program is scheduled to run Tuesday nights from 6 to 8 p.m.