Back by popular demand, the University of Minnesota Duluth will offer telehealth counseling again this school year.
During the pandemic, many schools connected virtually with students. Last year, UMD launched its telehealth program, that offers remote mental health counseling.
Now, the university is bringing it back, after seeing how well-received it was by students.
Virtual, in-person, and hybrid counseling sessions will be available. Free of charge and covered by tuition.
People seemed to like it…
“Last year we did our initial appointments virtually and then we talked to students about what it was they wanted moving forward. We were a little surprised, we thought that everybody would want to be back in the in-person in the office, but that wasn’t necessarily the case for all people.”
Baribeau-Thoennes went on to say, it’s important to keep virtual options available, especially during the cold, Minnesota months.
“Our no-show rates for appointments went down. Somebody might be like “oh no my car is blocked in and I have to shovel,” and normally they might have canceled the appointment, but now they just call and say can I switch my appointment to virtual.”
There are policy hiccups…
The kicker is — providers can only give services in their licensed state. Meaning UMD students have to be in Minnesota to use the telehealth option.
Blandin on Broadband 