Colleges nationwide are taking action to address mental health issues on campus. At Hamilton, the College has recently invested in free counseling services and a new Health and Counseling Center, and now, it has added an online counseling option called BetterMynds.
BetterMynds is a teletherapy service founded in 2014 that seeks to make counseling services more accessible to college students by making it possible for them to get help on their own time and in the privacy of their own rooms. Teletherapy is a form of therapy service that is provided online through a live video connection. With BetterMynds, students can find therapists and make appointments to talk to them on a secure video chat. The service went live on campus this week.
While the Counseling Center offers a variety of counseling options, including in-person sessions with
staff therapists, individual and group peer counseling, and referrals to local private therapists, BetterMynds, which is provided by the Dean of Students office, extends the resources available to students to take ownership of their mental health. Because BetterMynds is a portal rather than an on-campus counseling option, however, there are some fees associated with sessions, just as there would be for any private therapist. In some cases, these fees may be covered by insurance, but students should not mistake this for a free service.
The 2018–19 school year will be a trial period for BetterMynds at Hamilton. “We decided to contract with BetterMynds for a pilot year because we want to make sure that Hamilton students have the widest array of choices when it comes to their mental health needs,” said Dr. David Walden, Director of the Counseling Center. The Dean of Students office brought BetterMynds to campus and will work closely with the Counseling Center and Student Assembly to gather feedback.
Gavin Meade ’20, Student Assembly’s Mental Health Liaison, meets with Dr. Walden bi-weekly to discuss ideas for programming on campus. Meade says he welcomes feedback from students on their experience with BetterMynds. “Any student who has concerns about this specific bit of programming or mental health concerns
in general should reach out to me,” he said. “In my capacity as Mental Health Liaison to Student Assembly and leader of the Mental Health Taskforce, I feel well-equipped to handle any issues that may arise.”
Dr. Walden, along with Meade and the Dean of Students office, is still trying to figure out how they will effectively evaluate the usefulness of BetterMynds, since the service is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant, meaning it has broad protections of privacy for the students who use it. “On a very basic level, we will be assessing how many students use the service during the pilot year to assess long-term viability,” said Walden.
Walden says he thinks Hamilton is taking necessary action to make sure students get the help they need
in a comfortable, personalized way. “It’s really about providing choices for everyone’s unique situation as best we can given our resources,” he said. “I’d recommend that students consider what their needs are and choose the resources that best fit their situation.”
