MONMOUTH, Ill. — College students at Monmouth now have 24/7 access to resources that support their mental and physical health through a new app.
Monmouth College announced this week they will partner with TimelyCare, an online healthcare app that provides mental and physical health resources whenever they might be needed.
"You are always on your phone, and it's right there, so don't feel like you're alone, because you're not," Michelle Merritt, Monmouth College's vice president and dean of equity and wellbeing, said. "It is really important for students to take care of their health. Because if you can't take care of you, you can't do other things. You can't be successful in the classroom. You can't be successful with relationships. So, taking care of you is really important."
TimelyCare has built-in services like an emergency mental health hotline and a medical advisory helpline. For students currently enrolled at the school, they are allotted up to 12 counseling sessions per year with their licensed counselors, called "peer listeners."
"The initiatives and programming of the Mental Health Peer Educators are helping to decrease the stigma around mental health and mental illness on campus," Walker Gosney, one of the peer listeners with Monmouth College, said. "Creating a more comfortable environment for students to reach out to other students for help or to receive more information about mental health services is one part of how the Peer Educators seek to create a campus climate that is more open to discussing mental health."
By taking away the potential scheduling conflicts of finding time in a student's academic schedule, and the social anxiety students may feel if they need counseling, the college hopes this new app will open the door for better wellness within the campus community.
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