In October, the counseling center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had a waitlist for the first time in 14 years. It would take a week before students could receive support.

The center’s solution was virtual.

“The university really leapt into action and found us a telehealth option to help expand our capacity quickly,” said Avery Cook, interim director of counseling and psychological services at UNC-Chapel Hill. The center, which already employed 36 health professionals when fully staffed, saw the wait time disappear almost immediately, according to Cook.

This month, the university signed its second contract with Uwill, a Massachusetts-based teletherapy company. The first agreement ran from October to the end of May, covering most of the traditional academic year. Some 166 students have used the service through UNC-Chapel Hill since mid-October.

The renewal runs through November, giving students the option of teletherapy during summer break. Students are eligible to access all of the counseling center’s services, including its remote mental health services, without enrolling in class and paying the university’s summer semester health fee.

More and more, colleges are turning to outsourced telehealth services as a way to offer counseling support to students even when class is out of session.

Shasta College is one of 20 California community colleges that launched a 24/7 telehealth option for students this spring. The college had previously offered remote health services with its in-house staff, consisting of a psychological counselor and a nurse. But two people could only do so much and were limited by traditional business hours, according to Sandra Hamilton Slane, the dean of student services at Shasta.

For its 24/7 remote mental health services, Shasta contracts with another telehealth firm, the Texas-based TimelyMD. The program was initiated by the Foundation for California Community Colleges.

Some 37% of California students on TimelyMD used its services outside of regular counseling center hours in 2021, according to the company.

Read the full article about telemedicine for mental health by Laura Spitalniak at Higher Education Dive.