BIO

Anna Nguyen is a senior majoring in Public Health. Her hometown is Rockledge FL, located in the Space Coast of Florida. As a Public Health major, her passions lie in research that reduces health disparities in underserved populations. Currently, her research focuses on mental health within the collegiate population, which is a personal topic to her and many of her peers. In the future, Anna would like to further her education by obtaining an MPH/JD degree, with her long-term career goal being to work in health law and conduct public health law research.

Differences in Telehealth and In-Person College Counseling

Abstract

The 2019 COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to declines in collegiate mental health and caused changes in how universities operate their campus counseling services, with most universities’ counseling centers switching to telehealth delivery methods (Reay et al., 2020). The aim of this project is to examine the typical treatment dosage of two different campus counseling delivery methods: in-person counseling and telehealth counseling. It will also aim to determine the differences in collegiate mental health outcomes between patients who received treatment in person, and those who received treatment via telehealth. Data will come from a large southeast university’s counseling center, from two different time points: Fall 2018 (n=1,328) and Fall 2020 (n=1,080). Treatment dosage data will be examined by analyzing how the frequency clients came to the university counseling center. This study will also utilize The Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms-34 (CCAPS-34) test scores from counseling center clients to compare student mental health outcomes. Based on early analysis there were more students seeking in-person campus counseling services prior to COVID-19 during Fall of 2018 (n=1,328) when compared to seeking telehealth services during COVID-19 of Fall 2020 (n=1,080). Overall, the goal of this paper is to aid and support universities in their efforts towards positive collegiate mental health, as they decide the best counseling delivery methods to implement in their institutions.

Keywords: public health, mental health, counseling