Amid the growing need for mental health support on college campuses, Drake University has been diversifying the mental health resources available to students. One such resource is Uwill, a crisis hotline and teletherapy service.

Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jerry Parker explained that Uwill’s constant availability made therapy more accessible to Drake students with busy schedules.

“They could find a therapist through the directory and be able to schedule a time with that therapist to meet with them on hours that are more flexible or better to accommodate that student’s schedule,” said Parker.

Parker believes that Uwill’s availability is important to students.

“Students really appreciate the 24/7 [aspect of Uwill]. The satisfaction rate on the surveys we have received have been on a scale of one to 10; they’ve been above a nine. So [among] students that have utilized Uwill, there’s high satisfaction,” Parker said.

Parker says the surveys he referenced are not publicly available.

Kayla Bell-Consolver, Director of the Counseling Center and therapist at Broadlawns Community Clinic, says that, while she’s seen the same surveys, the student perspectives she’s heard aren’t as decisive.

“I’ve heard mixed reviews,” Bell-Consolver said.

But despite the availability, students aren’t using Uwill nearly as much as Parker expected based on working with students. The usage is below what other peer institutions are experiencing with similar services, according to Parker.

“By and large, what I’m hearing is that a lot of students are coming to college with therapists back home. They don’t see the need for starting a relationship with a new therapist,” Parker said.

In the face of lower-than-expected demand and changing student needs, the University may be looking into replacing Uwill with another service.

“We wouldn’t be able to do both. If students are like, ‘Yeah, we’re really not connecting to Uwill,’ and unfortunately we’ve heard a lot of that from students, are there other platforms that they would be interested in to meet student needs?” said Bell-Consolver.

High Demand at the Counseling Center 

Though Uwill doesn’t see the use that the University foresaw, demand for the counseling center remains high. Parker puts that demand down to the presence that Drake counseling and counselors have on campus.

“Our students get to know our therapists. [They] run over 100 programs campus-wide. Our therapists are not just meeting with students one on one — they’re here on campus, they’re running programs on the weekends, they’re running programs for student organizations. And when you build that relationship, there’s trust there,” Parker said.

Despite student affinity for the counseling center, high demand has limited the sessions the center has available. Although the counseling center has been expanding its staff to include more full-time therapists and interns, the counseling center is still not able to offer students weekly therapy sessions, which Bell-Consolver said that therapists agree would be beneficial to students.

However, high demand for the counseling center has prompted it to do more outreach on campus to expand access to mental health resources to, as Bell-Consolver emphasized, create an environment that promotes mental health, rather than keeping mental health work in the counseling center.

Barriers to telehealth remain

Shylee Saladi, the co-director of programming for the National Alliance on Mental Illness at Drake, says that the limited credits for Uwill and resulting lack of consistency in therapists makes students less inclined to use Uwill.

“We are not a big fan of it,” Saladi said, referring to NAMI’s executive council opinions on Uwill.

But Parker explained that the credit limit for Uwill is not what it appears. Until Feb. 6, the Uwill page on Drake University’s website showed that students had 90 credits, or three Uwill sessions, available to them. However, that information wasn’t correct and has since been updated to reflect the current credit limit. Students now have 150 credits, or five Uwill sessions. The website has also been updated to include information regarding requesting more credits that was not previously available to students.

“I can tell you that if a student has utilized all five of their virtual sessions and they need additional sessions, we haven’t said no. We still have a bank of sessions to allocate to the students that need more. A student has not been denied, to the best of my knowledge, if they’ve exceeded that and need more credits,” Parker said.

However, Parker also said that limits on credits, especially because Uwill is publicized as having a credit limit, could very well deter students from using the service.

Bell-Consolver agreed that the limit could prevent students from wanting to use Uwill, but said that lack of conversation about the service might be a more significant barrier.

Even disregarding the credits, the sessions that Uwill offers may be insufficient themselves and create barriers to students looking for therapy.

“There have been some that have said, ‘This doesn’t feel like it’s enough for me.’ The 30-minute sessions have been really off-putting to a lot of students. There have been some people that felt it wasn’t enough for what they needed in that moment,” said Bell-Consolver.

Saladi personally recommends that students go to the counseling center to address the mental health issues that they face.

“It’s more worth it to just contact the counseling center directly rather than start somewhere, have it stop after three sessions, and go to somewhere you would have gone to in the first place. At least you get someone consistently,” Saladi said.

Uwill supported by wellness fee

Students pay for Uwill as a part of the holistic wellness fee charged by the University.

“Oh yeah. They should,” Parker said when asked if students knew they were paying for Uwill. “I had to go around campus to a lot of meetings sharing what the holistic wellness fee was for.”

Parker cited meetings with Student Senate, Resident Advisors and other chartered student organizations.

“In those elected positions, they all have a responsibility to share that information with their constituencies,” Parker said. “On top of it, we as an institution have a responsibility and that’s exactly what I did was share this information out to the campus community.”

Contrary to Parker’s message, however, students don’t always know that they pay for these services.

“It is?” Saladi said when asked if she knew that Uwill was paid for by Drake fees. “I did not know that.”

Parker reflected on the importance of focusing on student wellness as Drake looks to improve — whether that’s introducing more Uwill credits or finding alternative services.

“It comes down to making sure that relationships stay intact with our students, that our students know that they’re not walking alone,” Parker said.