Some colleges will continue remote counseling sessions after pandemic subsides

Jun. 6—Well before the coronavirus upended life at Nebraska Wesleyan University, the number of students seeking on-campus help for their anxiety or depression was rising steadily.

The liberal arts university in northeast Lincoln has set annual highs for numbers of on-campus mental health appointments scheduled going back years, said Kim Corner, Nebraska Wesleyan's director of counseling services.

A 2016 study by the American College Health Association found more than half of students reported feeling hopeless at some point in the previous 12 months, while nearly 40% said they had experienced crippling bouts of depression.

Changing higher education

This story is the first of an occasional series examining how the coronavirus pandemic has changed higher education in Nebraska.

The confluence of several events — a global pandemic that altered academic, extracurricular and social aspects of campus life, an intense push for racial justice, and a toxic election cycle — only exacerbated those findings.

"Students didn't have their usual coping strategies, like spending time with friends and family, campus activities, or sports," Corner said. "Those usual outlets weren't available to them."

In a survey conducted last spring, the American College Health Association and Healthy Minds Network for Research on Adolescent and Young Adult Mental Health found students reporting higher rates of depression during the early stages of the pandemic.

As a result, the Counseling Center saw more than 1,500 appointments scheduled in the 2020-21 academic year, which Corner said marked a "significant" increase over the previous year.

To meet demand — and address a finding of the 2020 survey that students reported having a harder time accessing mental health services during the pandemic — Nebraska Wesleyan added a part-time counselor to bring its staff to two full-time and three part-time counselors.

And to limit the spread of COVID on campus, NWU offered telehealth appointments, giving students the chance to schedule times to talk from the comfort of their dorm room.

That's been an added plus for students with depression or anxiety, Corner said.

"They don't have to get up, get ready, and walk over to the Counseling Center," she added. "They can just wake up and open up their laptops."

Graciela Caneiro-Livingston, Wesleyan's provost, said remote sessions have also helped remove the stigma for some students who may have been avoiding seeking help.

"Students have told us they appreciate the anonymity of not going to the Counseling Center," Caneiro-Livingston said.

Offering access to services online has also resulted in a slight decrease in the number of appointment cancellations, or no-shows that take place, Corner added.

As the pandemic subsides and campus opens up fully in the fall, NWU said it will continue offering students the option to schedule remote counseling sessions in the coming school year.

A student survey done earlier this year signaled that while many want a return to in-person activities on campus, students appreciate the flexibility of talking with a counselor online, Corner said.

"Students really miss that in-person interaction," Corner said. "They definitely want being seen in person as an option as well, which is how it was always designed to be, but they'll have that choice when they contact us."

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will follow a similar track, with plans to return to in-person counseling this fall after most recently using a hybrid model, according to Tricia Besett-Alesch, the director of counseling and psychological services.

"So far, we have some students starting to come back in here because many are tired of classes all being online and want to meet in person," Besett-Alesch said in an email.

Other programs, such as Big Red Resilience and Well-being, which offers peer-to-peer coaching for stress management techniques at UNL, will continue via Zoom into the fall, said Connie Boehm, the director of student resilience.

Besett-Alesch said telehealth services, while serving as a great resource during the COVID pandemic, are not helpful during certain mental health issues, she added, but UNL wants to continue evaluating what best serves students.

"We always want to be open to the need of our students while also making sure we are careful to assess risk and need," Besett-Alesch said.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com.

On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS

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