Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) and META Teletherapy Enter into Agreement to Increase Access to College Student Mental Health Services
The Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) has awarded a master services agreement to META Teletherapy to provide mental health counseling services at a pre-negotiated, affordable rate to public and private not-for-profit post-secondary institutions in MHEC’s member states and its sister compact states.
META Teletherapy provides institutions of higher education with access to a nationwide network of licensed mental health providers. Institutions that implement META augment their mental health services by instantly improving their student-to-counselor ratio and expanding available times for counseling to include days, evenings, and weekends. META providers hold the industry’s best response time, averaging a reply to initial messages from students in under six hours.
MHEC continually pursues opportunities and programs to improve student success and health under the broad programmatic umbrella of MHECare. Student mental health has been a concern among college presidents even before the COVID-19 pandemic.¹ However, the pandemic has intensified the need to improve mental health support at college and university campuses. Since the pandemic, 65 percent of students report having fair or poor mental health, yet 75 percent reported not seeking mental health services.²
“Institutions of higher education need affordable, easy, stigma-free access to mental health support for their students. We’re happy to collaborate with META Teletherapy to provide institutions with an effective way to augment their counseling services. META gives students more options and faster access to licensed providers.”
–Jennifer Dahlquist, Vice President, Midwestern Higher Education Compact
The MHEC agreement with META provides institutions affordable access to a mental health provider marketplace where students can choose to connect with school counselors or META teletherapists through a mobile app for private, secure video, audio, and chat therapy sessions.
Most META mental health providers hold multiple state licenses, allowing students more choices within a diverse marketplace of counselors. Through the app, students can filter counselors by gender, language, ethnicity, therapy style, and more to find the perfect counselor. Students can see which providers are available online for instant connection, or leave messages to schedule sessions for a later time. META Teletherapy enables institutions to provide additional support to remote students attending courses online, regardless of location.
Colleges and universities interested in implementing META Teletherapy through the MHEC agreement can email sales@meta.app.
About MHEC: As an interstate compact, the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) brings together midwestern states to develop and support best practices, collaborative efforts, and cost-sharing opportunities. Through these efforts it works to ensure strong, equitable postsecondary educational opportunities and outcomes for all. Member states are: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. See MHEC’s website (MHEC.org/mhecare) for more information about the New England Board of Higher Education, Southern Regional Education Board or the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.