St. Charles Community College Partners with META for Online Mental Health Counseling Services
BUFFALO GROVE, IL – META, the nation’s leading confidential and secure mental health platform for schools, has partnered with St. Charles Community College (SCC) to expand online counseling services for their students.
SCC provides a Mental Health Counselor and a Student Support Case Manager to assist students with meeting their basic needs and assisting with their personal, academic, and career goals. In partnering with META, SCC is giving its students an additional option of teletherapy access to mental health professionals through SCC and META’s national network of licensed providers.
“We are thrilled to be working with META to address the mental health needs of our students,” said Boyd Copeland, Executive Dean of Student Life at SCC. “SCC is committed to improving the whole health of our student body: academically, physically, and mentally. This generation of students is facing a host of challenges, and giving them the tools they need to cope with these challenges is central to our mission.”
Students download the app, choose a provider, and receive counseling through the privacy and convenience of their smartphones via chat, video, or voice calls. The platform provides students the freedom to choose a therapist who’s a good fit, and the ability to reach them quickly and easily. META is entirely self-contained: all paperwork, messaging, and counseling sessions are done within the platform. Students and providers don’t need to use email or jump to a different video conferencing tool. In fact, for security purposes, all messaging is deleted after 30 days and META does not share user activity to third-party digital advertisers.
Mental health issues are a growing concern among college populations, especially since the coronavirus pandemic. According to a recent survey conducted by META, 84 percent of college students report that COVID-19 has negatively impacted their mental health and are struggling with stress and anxiety. Of those students, one out of three is seeing a licensed therapist to cope with the pandemic. Social distancing requirements have made teletherapy a necessity for mental health providers to protect themselves and their clients.
Since the beginning of 2020, student engagement on META has increased 450 percent. META allows users to filter therapists by specialty, therapy style, ethnicity, language and more. Students can view provider video bios, and send chat messages before receiving counseling. Providers on META’s network are available during nights and weekends to better fit the student’s schedule.
By partnering with META, SCC receives a robust mental health program, complete with self-service content directed at students and an ongoing awareness campaign promoting students to take care of their emotional and mental well-being.
About St. Charles Community College: St. Charles Community College (SCC) is a public, comprehensive two-year community college with associate degrees and certificate programs in the arts, business, sciences and career-technical fields. SCC provides workforce training and community-based personal and professional development as well as cultural, recreational and entertainment opportunities. For more information, visit www.stchas.edu.