More than 80% of college faculty and staff members have noticed increasing demand among online learners for mental health services this past school year, according to a new survey from the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) and teletherapy company Uwill.
Michael London
The survey – conducted by OLC in March 2024 – garnered responses from 338 college faculty and staff members from a mix of public and private institutions nationally, asking about their beliefs and observations of the mental health of their online students.
“There have been some surveys that have been done that focus on online students,” said OLC CEO Dr. Jennifer Mathes. “What we wanted to know is, if you're a faculty member teaching online courses or you're a staff member who works with online students, how comfortable are you in working with those students that are coming to you for help?”
Online learners face a number of hurdles when it comes to accessing mental health support, the most prominently cited one by respondents (62%) being time constraints, according to the report.
Other cited barriers included lack of knowledge of support services (59%), lack of services that cater to their needs (55%), financial and health insurance issues (47%), and lack of available counseling appointments (45%).
Not only does current-day mental healthcare vary in quality, but it can be difficult for online learners to find therapists in a reasonable amount of time, said Uwilll CEO Michael London. And on-site campus counseling can be hard to reach for students taking their courses online, who likely don’t live near campus or are unlikely to visit.
Students may also find that support services are limited or unavailable, either because counselors’ state licensing restrictions prevent them from assisting students living elsewhere or because the students – who are likely to be working full- or part-time – cannot come to appointments during usual business hours, London wrote in a later email.
