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Credit: Tofros via Pexels
Education Dive
Why colleges are looking online for mental health care
Schools are trying new ways to keep waitlists down as more students
seek counseling, but officials should be diligent when working with
outside partners.
Wayne D'Orio
Dec. 2, 2019
More college students are seeking mental health counseling, stressing institutions' already-strapped services.
Visits to campus counseling centers climbed 30% to 40% between the fall
of 2009 and the spring of 2015, according to the Center for Collegiate
Mental Health. Enrollment, meanwhile, grew just 5% during that time.
That has helped push the ratio of counselors to students to around
740:1 at the smallest schools and 2,000:1 at larger colleges, according
to a survey of more than 570 institutions by the Association for
University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD).
And it has contributed to a bottleneck in access to critical mental
health care that has campus health officials scrambling for ways to
keep waitlists in check. For help, some are turning to telehealth
services, which provide care through digital mediums such as text
messages, phone calls and video chats.
Along with giving counseling centers another avenue for assisting
students, such services let them offer care as it is needed and from
wherever students happen to be.
"Every college we've spoken with is bursting at the seams," said Lynn
Hamilton, chief commercial officer at Talkspace, an online therapy
company. "Supply and demand is an uneven equation."
Services 'where they are'
Meeting students' demand for mental health care is "a constant battle,"
said Tiffany Howard, who coordinates online counseling and psychiatry
services for the University of South Carolina's Student Health Services.
She estimates about 13% of the university's 34,795 students seek mental
health counseling. Hiring more staff didn't completely meet the demand,
especially during busy times. The university has 30 counselors and
seven psychiatrists, she said.
AUCCCD data shows that one-third of college counseling centers reported
having a waitlist during the 2017-18 academic year, even though 43% of
centers added staff positions during that time, the association notes.
As U of South Carolina officials looked for a more efficient way to
help students, particularly those with less-serious issues, they found
TAO Connect, an online therapy service. Institutions pay an
enrollment-based fee to partner with TAO, which can be used to
supplement in-person work with a therapist. It also offers self-paced
online learning modules that teach coping skills.
Howard said having an online support option could reduce the number of
students who need in-person counseling, and it can let colleges bring
the service to students "where they are," she added, "on their phones."
That immediacy also lets students and therapists tackle issues as or
right after they happen, Talkspace's Hamilton said, making them better
able to deconstruct triggers and resolve recurring issues.
Talkspace, for instance, allows users to text therapists 24/7, with
therapists engaging "at least once daily, often more," Hamilton said.
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