Symposia
Transdiagnostic
Katherine Cohen, M.A.
Graduate Student
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York
Divya Manikandan, BS
Research Assistant
The University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Matthew Jirsa, MHSA
Research Assistant
The University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Amy Gatto, MPH
Senior Manager of Higher Education & Evaluation
Active Minds
Washington DC, District of Columbia
Sasha Zhou, PhD
Assistant Professor
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan
Purpose: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many colleges and universities began offering mental health services to their students through telehealth or through a combination of telehealth and in-person (hereby hybrid) services. Understanding the experiences and perceptions of students who received telehealth or hybrid services during the pandemic may provide implications for the future of mental healthcare delivery in college and university settings. This study uses nationally representative, population-level data collected from college and university students in the U.S. to determine how the modality of mental health care received by students (telehealth, hybrid, or in-person) affected their satisfaction with care and perceptions of campus support.
Methods: Data was collected from the Healthy Minds Survey (HMS), a national survey of college students, during Fall 2020 and Spring/Winter 2021. A total of 138 institutions participated in HMS. HMS was approved by the Institutional Review Boards on all campuses. Institutions included public and private universities, four-year colleges, and community colleges. Kruskal-Wallis H tests were conducted to examine how students who reported receiving campus mental health services through telehealth (n = 6579), in-person (n = 4530), and hybrid (n = 2867) modes of delivery differed in their satisfaction with care and perceived support. If the p-value from a Kruskal-Wallis H test was significant (p < 0.05), Bonferroni-corrected pairwise comparisons were conducted.
Results: Students receiving in-person services were less likely to be satisfied with the quality of therapists, H(2) = 602.43, p</span> < 0.001, the ability to schedule appointments without long delays, H(2) = 365.82, p < 0.001, requests for privacy concerns, H(2) = 449.2, p < 0.001, and convenient hours, H(2) = 359.3, p < 0.001, compared to students receiving telehealth or hybrid services. Students receiving in-person services were also less likely to indicate that they felt campus mental health services, H(20) = 292.76, p < 0.001, or their campuses at large, H(2) = 26.15, p < 0.001, were supportive of students’ mental health, compared to students receiving telehealth or hybrid services.
Conclusions: These results suggest that there are unique strengths to telehealth and hybrid modes of mental health service delivery on college campuses. Institutions may consider inculcating these services into campus counseling centers even as in-person activities increase.