Is Your Collegiate Mental Health Office Overwhelmed With Clients?
Are you a college administrator or counselor who is concerned about the lack of mental health resources for your students?
Do you sometimes have to turn students away due to lack of available health staff? Perhaps your department has been downsized like so many other collegiate mental health offices, causing longer wait times than you’d like for your students. Or, maybe you’re looking for a more long-term out-patient service for them, and feel there is nothing adequate available locally.
Are you concerned about your students’ ability or willingness to follow through with the referrals you provide them? They may lack the transportation, motivation, or time needed to get to the resource you’ve made available to them. Alternately, maybe you feel unsure that the student populations’ diverse needs can be appropriately accommodated by your local healthcare community. When you’ve dedicated your professional life to university students’ mental health, worrying that they’re underserved can feel like an overwhelming problem. If you are struggling with any of these questions, there is a way to bolster your university’s mental health services.
Lack Of Availability Is One Of The Many Problems College Students Face
Recent studies conducted surrounding mental health on college campuses show that there is a shortage of college counselors available to student populations nationwide. Simultaneously, seeking mental health services is slowly becoming destigmatized. This rise in need, and decline in available services, has several concerning impacts. These factors cause colleges to focus their slim resources largely on high-risk students. This leaves little to no resources available for students who may not be in immediate crisis, but need ongoing mental health treatment. Additionally, the rise in demand and drop in supply increases the cost of these services, which is a burden to both school personnel and students themselves.
It is more difficult than ever for schools to provide efficient and effective care to students in need of mental health support. This is particularly troubling as college students are especially vulnerable. Being away from home for the first time, increasing expectations or pressures, and the immersion in potentially unhealthy habits can cause academic, social, and physical problems. Seeking treatment for their struggles can often require paperwork or payment that seems daunting or would involve their parents, which can exacerbate stress and/or deter students entirely.
Serving students’ needs appears to be overwhelming collegiate counseling offices nationwide. As the trend continues, a new strategy has emerged that is both appropriately current, and highly effective. Dubbed Telemental Health or Telebehavioral Health, online psychotherapy is the answer that universities have been looking for.
College Telehealth Serves Students Quickly And Effectively
College Telehealth is an online mental health resource designed to cater to the specific challenges that colleges and college students face. From an administrative standpoint, we can lighten your workload and help drive costs down as you refer clients to us in full confidence.
Challenges of traditional therapy:
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Many mental health college programs don’t have an external resource to refer their clients. Rural areas in particular are underserved from a mental health standpoint.
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Even if there are mental health professionals in the area, college students tend to be a diverse crowd with diverse needs, not all of which may be able to be addressed by the small therapeutic pool in rural areas.
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Urban areas can suffer from long wait-times for referrals. College Telehealth can see students within 24-48 hours of initial contact. No wait-time, and no limit on specialty. We have a wide range of experts available to treat students right away, no matter where they are in the nation.
Why College Telehealth:
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We work with students as early as high school to assist with the collegiate transition, and of course, we can remain a resource to them longer after their transition out of college.
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The Telehealth model is especially appealing to today’s students as they are internet-savvy, and for many, the computer is a comfort zone. They have grown up, in large part, behind a computer, so virtual counseling is a convenient, relaxed way for them to get the help they need without exacerbating their already high-stress levels.
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Time is extremely valuable for all students and even more so for working, graduate, or non-traditional students who have limited availability during normal business hours. While they may not be able to fit a commute to a therapist into their schedule, they may be able to fit a virtual session in over their lunch break; or, if they have no availability at all, we have clinicians available during non-traditional hours
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Once students experience the compassionate, productive environment that our counselors provide, they are very likely to stay consistent with their sessions and get all the help they need.
Online therapy specifics:
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Virtual sessions are very similar to in-person therapy, but the students and clinicians interact via live videoconferencing.
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College Telehealth professionals use industry-standard best practices, bolstered by our top-tier online tools
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No matter the student’s need, we have an engaged, licensed counselor available to assist them immediately. The student simply logs into our Student Portal to sign up, and then a counselor contacts them to schedule sessions.
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Virtual therapy integrates a variety of approaches based on the client’s need. We offer interactive therapeutic activities, shared screen services, psycho-educational videos, assessment screenings and tools, music or art therapy, and much more.
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Our website has a student portal that is easy to navigate should you refer a client to us as a collegiate administrator, and we also offer partnership options, should your institution wish to do closer collaborative work. Online counseling truly is the wave of the future; College Telehealth is the answer to your client and work overload, as well as the best way to serve your student population.
Are online clinicians fully licensed?
College Telehealth therapists are board certified, and fully licensed and/or credentialed in your state. All HIPAA standards are strictly adhered to, and we offer a variety of payment options for clients; we accept limited insurance, out of network payment, and consider reduced fee options based on financial need.
How can I be sure that virtual counseling is secure?
We are regulated by all the same organizations and policies that would be present in a traditional outpatient facility, but we also have additional virtual protections in place to keep client information confidential and secure. We use Zoom for Healthcare, which is a HIPAA-compliant platform, as well as other specialized and secured EHR platforms.
I would consider referring students for outpatient work, but many of our clients are high-risk.
The important thing to note about high-risk clients is that they need to be seen immediately, and that is one of our many benefits. We can see a high-risk student quicker than appointments might be available within your college offices, outside normal business hours, and we have the specialty skillset to be able to handle whatever their crisis may be.
Improve Your Ability To Help Your Students Through College Telehealth
College Telehealth has been providing telehealth since 2013, and is expanding nationally. If you are a college administrator interested in College Telehealth as a partner or as a resource for your students, please contact us.