Guidance and Counseling Services
Individual and group counselling, testing referrals, and the case work the office keeps for each student who comes through it.
Managed in GCAMS
SWDS · Samar State University
Every student, supported — and every session, properly kept.
The Student Welfare and Development Services office provides the guidance, counselling and welfare programmes that help students develop their full potential. GCAMS is how you reach them online: book a counselling appointment, follow a referral, and find official answers about SWDS services.
In immediate distress? Come to the SWDS office in person — urgent cases follow the counsellors' professional judgment, not a queue. The numbers below are open now.
10
Student services under one office
5
Roles in GCAMS, each with its own view
Online
Appointment requests, replacing the paper slip
24/7
Answers from the SWDS knowledge base
If you need help now
You do not have to wait for an appointment.
Come to the SWDS office during office hours and ask to be seen. If it cannot wait, use one of these.
- NCMH Crisis Hotline (landline, toll-free) 1553
- NCMH Crisis Hotline (mobile) 0919-057-1553, 0917-899-8727, 0966-351-4518
- Emergency 911
- SSU Safety and Security Services 251-3435
- Samar Provincial Hospital 543-89-22
- SSU Medical Clinic 251-3429
- SSU Guidance Counselor 0939-917-3688
- SSU University Physician 0917-322-1554
- SSU Chief Security Officer 0917-309-2610
- City Health Office 055-543-9471
The office
Services for the well-being of students.
SWDS exists so that every student can develop their potential fully — personally, socially and academically — and so that anyone who needs help finds a door that is open.
The office sits under the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and Services and delivers ten student services, of which Guidance and Counseling is the first. GCAMS is the system behind that first service: it carries the appointments, the referrals, the counselling cases and the official SWDS forms, and leaves the other nine to the office as they are.
Our services
Ten services, one office to walk into.
Every SWDS service is open to all bonafide students of Samar State University.
Students with Special Needs and PWDs
Regular guidance, general counselling and testing referrals so students with disabilities can use their potential to the fullest.
Information and Orientation
Orientation programmes and official information about university life, policies and the services available to students.
Psychological Wellness
Wellness activities and psychological services, including screening and onward referral where a concern needs more than guidance.
Career Services
Career exploration, guidance and preparation for students moving from study into work.
Public Employment Service Office
Employment facilitation and job placement assistance for students and graduates.
Economic Enterprise Development
Support for student enterprise and income-generating activities within the University.
Admission and Recruitment
Admission, testing and recruitment services for incoming students of the University.
Student Council and Organisations
The University Student Council and the accredited and re-accredited campus student organisations.
Multi-faith Services
Space and support for the faith practices of the University's student community.
GCAMS
The guidance counselling appointment and case management system.
A web-based, AI-assisted replacement for the paper counselling request — built around the office's own procedure rather than beside it.
What changes for a student
You no longer have to come to the office simply to ask for an appointment. Request one from anywhere, see it approved, get a reminder before it, and follow a referral through to its close.
Sign in to requestAppointments
Request a session online, see counsellor availability, and follow approval, rescheduling or cancellation to the end.
Schedules and availability
Counsellors set when they are free; slots are offered against the student's own registered class timetable.
Referrals
Referred students recorded, assigned, acknowledged and monitored, with the call slip and referral details in one record.
Counselling cases
Intake, consent, screening, documentation, progress monitoring, onward referral, evaluation and case closing.
SWDS forms
The office's official forms, digitised with the same fields SWDS uses on paper today.
AI assistant
Answers about SWDS services and procedures from an approved knowledge base, with referral to a person when needed.
Notifications
Appointment updates and reminders, referral notifications, and SWDS announcements.
Reports
Appointment, counselling service and referral statistics, plus counsellor schedules, for the office's returns.
Security and privacy
Role-based access, secure authentication, protected counselling records and audit logs on every access.
The assistant
Ask about SWDS, any hour.
The AI Guidance Assistant answers questions about SWDS services and procedures from content the office has approved, and cites the document it drew on.
It is not a counsellor. It does not diagnose, does not recommend treatment, and never decides how urgent anything is. When a message suggests someone is at risk, it stops answering and brings a counsellor in.
How do I request a counselling appointment?
Sign in, pick a service and a counsellor's open slot, and submit. You will be notified when it is approved.
Is what I say in a session confidential?
Yes, with four narrow exceptions the consent form names before you sign it: consultation within the counselling team, a clear and imminent danger to you or to someone else, suspected abuse of a minor, and a court order.
What if I only feel stressed, not in crisis?
That is still worth an appointment. The assistant can also share general information on stress and coping in the meantime.
Which SWDS service do I actually need?
Describe your concern in your own words and the assistant will point you to the right service or person.
For faculty and staff
Referring a student for counselling.
The procedure is the Unified Student Handbook's own, pp. 145–146. GCAMS follows it step for step; what changes is that nothing is lost between the steps.
1
Notice and talk to the student
A dean, faculty member, staff member, adviser or classmate raises the concern with the student before referring.
2
File the referral
The referral is recorded in GCAMS with the student, the concern and the referring party. No loose slips of paper.
3
The office issues a call slip
SWDS assigns it to a counsellor or peer counsellor and issues the call slip for the session.
4
Acknowledge and follow up
The referrer sees the referral acknowledged and its status move, while the session content stays confidential.
Students with disabilities. Regular guidance and counselling, and testing referrals, are provided so that students with disabilities can use their potential to the fullest. Their records and counselling notes are kept confidential.
Talk to the office
Who uses GCAMS
Five roles. Each one sees only its own work.
What a person can open is decided by what their work requires, and by nothing else.
Student
Requests appointments, completes forms, checks in, uses the assistant, and follows their appointment and referral history.
Peer counsellor
A first bridge to a professional: initial peer support within their role, referral information, and onward referral. No diagnosis and no clinical work.
Guidance counsellor
Manages availability and assigned appointments, records counselling documentation, monitors cases and closes them when appropriate.
SWDS staff
Handles appointment requests, schedules, referrals and SWDS forms, monitors services and generates reports.
Administrator
Accounts and roles, system settings, the assistant's knowledge base, reports and the audit logs. Not counselling records.
Confidentiality
What you tell a counsellor stays with the counsellor.
Counselling records are personal and sensitive information under the Data Privacy Act of 2012. They are held apart from ordinary student data, and every time one is opened, the system writes down who opened it.
Role-based access
Each role reaches only what its work requires; case notes are not open to administrators.
Secure authentication
Sign-in is by university email address, and staff accounts can add two-step verification.
Protected records
Counselling documentation is held apart from ordinary student data, encrypted, and never published.
Audit logs
Every access to a record is written to a log the office can review afterwards.
Data privacy controls
Consent is recorded at intake, and students are shown what is kept and who may read it.
Visit us
The SWDS office is open to you.
Where
SWDS Office, Samar State University, Catbalogan City, Samar
Office hours
Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Email
swds@ssu.edu.ph
Who may come
All bonafide students of Samar State University, and faculty or staff making a referral.
Sign in to GCAMS.
Students, peer counsellors and SWDS personnel sign in with their university email address. If you are a student and do not have an account yet, you can create one.