In an era where access to mental health services is crucial for the well-being of students, NEIU’s Student Counseling Services has taken a significant step by partnering with TimelyCare, a telehealth service provider. TimelyCare offers a range of accessible mental health services, catering to the diverse needs of NEIU’s student population. TimelyCare provides three types of psychotherapies to students through its official app for Android and iOS, or via a desktop web browser. The three primary services are TalkNow, Health Coaching and Scheduled Counseling. In addition, there is self-care content and a community chat section. TalkNow is available 24/7, providing on-demand emotional support for students to talk and vent about anything. The topics that can be selected from within the TimelyCare app include anxiety, depression, substance abuse, paranoia, abuse, sexual assault, violence, stress, relationship issues, social services needs, food and body image issues, mood issues and other write-in reasons.
Since its launch at NEIU in April 2023, TimelyCare has made a significant impact on the student community. During the TimelyCare Kickoff event, Dru Howard, client success manager at TimelyCare, said that as of August 29, “199 students have registered” for the service since its launch at NEIU, and “40 students registered from this morning alone,” which demonstrates an immediate need for accessible mental health resources. Howard said all providers “are licensed mental health counselors and social workers.”
Of the three primary services that TimelyCare offers — TalkNow, Health Coaching and Scheduled Counseling — Scheduled Counseling feels like the ‘holy grail’ of the TimelyCare app because it has a capped allocation during the academic year. Thus, it may be considered the most valuable of the three primary services. Scheduled counseling allows students to choose a mental health provider after looking at several providers’ background information, and students can choose a day and time that fits their schedules. According to Howard, scheduled counseling “is limited to nine sessions per academic year” and “at the end of every academic year, [the nine sessions] do restart for that student” for continued support. Furthermore, the mental health providers “push those sessions out, so [the students] don’t use all nine within a month.” They also “… recommend students to use TalkNow or other resources which are on-campus as well” in between the nine scheduled sessions. Thus, it is important for students to find an optimal balance of comprehensively tying all the available mental health services into their lives.
Howard said, “All of our providers within TalkNow have Master’s level credentials and above.” The TalkNow feature offers on-demand, accessible emotional support. It is available 24/7 and provides a support specialist to allow students to vent about anything. After requesting an on-demand session, it takes between five and fifteen minutes to connect with a licensed mental health professional. The help offered by the support specialist may be hit or miss depending on the needs of the student. In other words, it may help a student to understand their own thoughts more clearly, or it may leave a student feeling neutral about the outcome of using TalkNow. Regardless, students are likely to feel a weight lifted off their shoulders. After participating in a TalkNow session, the mental health professional will give a downloadable summary that includes a broad overview of topics discussed. This summary will be saved for the user’s next TalkNow session as a reference point. Regarding privacy and security, Howard states, “We are aligning with HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act], it is no different than going to doctors.” He reiterated, “Privacy is number one when it comes to TimelyCare because there are certain situations where students don’t feel like they can speak [openly due to] their appearance or anything.”
TimelyCare’s Health Coaching service is an appointment-based service. It is not on-demand, but there are plenty of health coaches to discuss nutrition and healthy eating, exercise and movement, management of weight, sleep, stress or time, substance use or misuse, unhealthy or disordered eating, goals for physical illness or mental health management and other write-in reasons. Since the coaching service is appointment-based, it gives options for students to choose a health coach based on unique credentials, experiences and areas of specialty. It could also be hit or miss in terms of the attributes that a student may be looking for. This service includes giving a general background of a student’s current health status upon initial intake, creating health goals that the student would like to achieve, and receiving advice, such as journaling and tracking the student’s metrics over the next four weeks prior to a future appointment. The effectiveness of this service can vary depending on how proactive students are in improving their physical and mental health.
Regardless of the service that a student requests on TimelyCare, Howard has reassured, “Everything that is said on TimelyCare between you and your provider is between you and your provider and your campus counseling center, so we don’t violate HIPAA, [and] all of our providers are HIPAA-trained, so nobody can violate that policy.”
The self-care content gives brief videos, textual information and resources about sleep, anxiety, depression, stress, healthy relationships, healthy eating, yoga, meditation, study essentials, TimelyBites and recovery essentials. This content can be found in the Explore tab at the bottom of the app’s user interface. The self-care content is designed to be general in nature to cater to a wide range of students. The usefulness of the advice may vary depending on each student’s unique experiences and knowledge.
The app features a community section where students can briefly describe a problem as a thread, and students who have experienced similar issues can give helpful advice in response. According to the posting rules, the community section is moderated for safety and only the first and last initials of those who post their problems and responses are displayed. If a student has an inquiry and wants to see how other students would handle the situation, the community section could be the most suitable place in the app to seek such assistance.
Students may find comfort in knowing that the telehealth services offered at NEIU through TimelyCare are consistent with those found at other higher education institutions. TimelyCare is a subscription-based telehealth app that has become somewhat standardized, as it is not only available at NEIU but also at other Illinois colleges and universities, such as Western Illinois University, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Lewis University and Triton College.
There are more services that could be a part of NEIU’s student subscription plan to TimelyCare, such as psychiatric services, which are not currently included. According to Howard, “We do have a psychiatry service [in TimelyCare], but it’s not included with [the subscription plan] you guys have, but it can be, it can definitely be if that’s something you request” to Student Counseling Services.
Howard said in terms of all students, “I just hope that everyone takes care of their mental health because I’m tired of seeing so many young people… committing suicide, or hurting themselves due to… not being able to talk to anybody, so if you feel the need to speak with someone or just need to vent, please get that help, please use TimelyCare, please reach out to your counseling center.”
TimelyCare should be an additional valuable resource for all NEIU students to embrace, complementing the in-person resources available at NEIU’s Student Counseling Services in room B-119 of the Main Campus.
Disclaimer: This article is based on information provided in an interview that The Independent’s reporter conducted with Dru Howard, client success manager at NEIU’s TimelyCare Kickoff event, on August 29, 2023. The statements and quotes attributed to the interviewee accurately represent their views as of that date.
