Tulane University
01/13/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 01/13/2025 10:49
Tulane launches 24/7 virtual mental health support for students
Tulane launches 24/7 virtual mental health support for students
Tulane is launching a new telehealth service - Mental Health Complete - that will offer behavioral health care as well as crisis management and mental health coaching for students. (Photo by Kenny Lass)As part of its ongoing commitment to student mental health and well-being, Tulane is launching a new telehealth service that will offer behavioral health care as well as crisis management and mental health coaching for students.
Mental Health Complete, which launches Monday, Jan. 13, is being provided through a partnership between the Tulane University Medical Group and Campus Health and Wellness. Among its features are virtual coaching, which offers one-on-one text guidance, and live video sessions with professional mental health coaches.
Students can also schedule virtual therapy or psychiatry sessions with licensed mental health providers, either in Louisiana or elsewhere in the United States. The virtual psychiatry sessions could include medication prescriptions.
"Making health and wellness coaching available to our students will help to reduce health disparities and help students take better care of themselves while managing their academic responsibilities."
Caesar C. Ross III, assistant vice president of Campus Health and WellnessThe program also features on-demand tools and resources to guide students on a journey to health and wellness. The easy-to-use modules have been designed to help manage everyday stress and struggles while addressing such issues as sleep management, diet and exercise, smoking cessation, anxiety, relationship issues, substance addictions and others.
Mental Health Complete provides its seven-day-a-week access to telehealth free of charge to students who pay the university's health fee as part of their registration. This means participants do not have to use their insurance for the service.
The new program continues to position Tulane as a national leader in addressing student mental health, which is one of the primary challenges faced by the college-age population nationwide. It also complements other Tulane initiatives such as Wave of Support, which brings together programs and services across campus in holistic support of students' mental and emotional health. In addition, Campus Health's Counseling and Psychiatric Services offers a host of in-person individual and group therapy options, psychiatric care, outreach and prevention programs, and a 24/7 Crisis Support Line.
"I am so excited for this expansion of the suite of wellness services we offer to our students at Tulane," said Vice President of Student Affairs Sarah Cunningham. "Mental Health Complete will increase access to mental health services, be available on short notice, eliminate travel times and provide students the ability to activate resources from the privacy and comfort of their own spaces."
Caesar C. Ross III, assistant vice president of Campus Health and Wellness, said Mental Health Complete is also an important step toward reducing health disparities caused by such factors as race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or poverty.
"According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence or opportunities," Ross said. "Making health and wellness coaching available to our students will help to reduce health disparities and help students take better care of themselves while managing their academic responsibilities."
Students wishing to access the program can visit the Mental Health Complete page on the Campus Health website and follow the registration instructions using their full legal name and tulane.edu email address.
Mental Health Complete is not designed for mental health emergencies, and students experiencing such an emergency should call the 24/7 Crisis Support Line at 504-264-6074.