Seeking Help Off-Campus
Seeking Help Off-Campus
Part of living a balanced life as a student is caring for your emotional and behavioral well-being (aka mental health). So how do you care for your mental health? For starters, you make sure you have social support and coping skills to help you manage stress. In addition, you can boost your mental health by intervening early if you notice symptoms of distress (like depression or anxiety). If you find that you are struggling to manage your stress, or that symptoms of distress are piling up, this guide can help you locate off-campus professional help and support.
It’s not always easy to tell. One good rule of thumb is to seek professional help if you are experiencing symptoms that lead to an impairment in your social life, your work life, your academic life, or in any other meaningful area of your life. Another rule of thumb is to seek help when the level of distress you are experiencing exceeds your ability to cope with it on your own and with the help of your usual support network. Something you might find helpful is to consider taking a free and confidential online evaluation to help determine whether you might be dealing with a mental health disorder.
The National Committee for Quality Assurance, or NCQA, recommends following these time frames when you need mental health and substance use disorder services.
Get help:
Immediately
for a life-threatening emergency. Call 911 or go to the emergency room
Within six hours
for emergencies that aren’t life-threatening, but immediate attention is required
Within 48 hours
for urgent care, when it’s not life-threatening but face-to-face contact is required
Within 10 days
for routine office visits
Just as in the case of medical conditions, some forms of psychological distress require more intensive care than others. Levels of care range from the least intensive (called Outpatient Treatment) to the most intensive (Inpatient Hospitalization). Outpatient Treatment generally occurs once a week for approximately an hour with a licensed mental health provider such as psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker or professional counselor. Inpatient Treatment occurs within a hospital with round-the-clock support. Read more about levels of care by clicking here.
Both medication and talk therapy (as well combination of the two) have been scientifically proven to help with emotional problems. But there is evidence to suggest that some problems are better treated with one form of treatment over the other. Click here to read a helpful summary of current evidence from the American Psychological Association. Whatever decision you make, consider consulting with a physician, psychologist or mental health professional to help make the best choice for you.
Use your insurance. Most insurance providers have a search tool that will allow you to search for in-network behavioral health providers in your area. You can usually find the website for your insurance on the back of your insurance card. Once you are able to see a list of covered providers, you can start to make calls or look at online profiles to see if they are a match for what you need.
Low-cost and sliding scale options are available if you do not have health insurance or you are concerned that your insurance won’t cover what you need. If you think this might be the case for you, these tools may be valuable in your search:
Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator (a tool from SAMHSA)
Find a Health Center (a tool from the Dept of Health and Human Services)
Psychology Today: Find a Therapist Tool
When it comes to finding a mental health care provider, locating a good fit is key. The presence of a strong relationship is one of the most therapeutic aspects of mental health counseling. When choosing a provider, you will often have an opportunity to speak with them on the phone prior to a face-to-face meeting. Here are some questions you might want to consider asking a potential provider:
Can you describe the style or type of therapy you do?
How do you think people get better in treatment?
Do you specialize in work with particular cultural identities (e.g. ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation)?
Do you have any particular areas of expertise?
In what languages are you able to provide treatment?
Do you have an active license to practice mental health treatment?
It may also be important to clarify some issues related to money and insurance. It is okay to ask these questions up-front, and most (if not all) health-care providers expect such inquiries:
Do you take my insurance?
How do you handle billing?
Do you offer treatment on a "sliding scale" based on individual financial considerations?
How much should I expect to pay per session?
There are some great self-help options available in books, online and through your smart phone. For example, here’s a list of ten things you can do right now for your mental health. If you are interested in more self-help options, click here to view a list of resources compiled by the Stevens office of Counseling and Psychological Services.
Navigating the process of obtaining health insurance that covers the mental health treatment you need can be confusing. You don’t have to figure it all out on your own. Here are some very useful online resources that can help you in your exploration:
FAQ from the U.S. government regarding insurance coverage for mental health
Help navigating mental health and addictions insurance (from the Dept of Health and Human Services)
A useful guide to mental health ‘parity’ laws
Things to consider when buying insurance coverage related to your mental health
Understanding Health Insurance (from the National Alliance on Mental Illness)
Referrals
At times, CAPS will make a recommendation for treatment with an off-campus provider. We make every effort to help students and parents find quality treatment providers who will work with your insurance needs. The links below connect you to lists of licensed mental health providers in Hoboken and the surrounding area. Please note that while CAPS can attest to the general effectiveness of mental health treatment, we do not guarantee the effectiveness of individual treatment providers. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of our students to screen potential treatment providers to assess whether the provider fits their particular needs.
Teletherapy Outside New Jersey and New York
Stevens Institute of Technology is pleased to have contracted with Uwill, a leading mental health platform for colleges and universities. Uwill offers Stevens students who are living outside of the New Jersey and New York area a convenient way to receive counseling should the need arise. We hope Uwill will be a useful resource to many of you!
Access is quick and easy. You may access Uwill by clicking on https://app.uwill.com
There is no cost to use Uwill. You will receive 150 counseling credits (5 sessions), that can be used for your sessions. Video, phone, chat and message-based therapy options will all be available to you
You should not need much help, but just in case, Uwill offers a quick start guide for Stevens students, as well as phone / email assistance at 1-833-998-9455 or [email protected]
FAQ
Uwill is a leading teletherapy platform that allows college students nationwide to receive real-time counseling online from licensed mental health professionals.
You choose from a list of mental health professionals, and you are then able to receive 1:1 counseling via video, phone, chat or text.
All currently registered and enrolled Stevens Institute of Technology students who are outside of New Jersey or New York with a valid school email address are eligible to utilize the Uwill platform.
Yes, being a registered and enrolled Stevens Institute of Technology student means that your college has chosen to offer this service to you as an additional resource, free of charge.
You may access the Uwill platform by clicking on app.uwill.com. From there, you can register using your Stevens email address. Once you complete the registration process, you will receive an email confirmation. After confirming your email address, you can select a counselor and schedule an appointment.
You will generally be matched with a counselor within 24 hours after you complete your registration
Uwill’s platform is designed to help students facing a variety of mental health concerns, including: depression, stress, specific relationship problems, family concerns, academic performance difficulties, sleep disturbance, social isolation/loneliness and adjustment to a new environment, among others.
They are all licensed mental health professionals with extensive clinical experience who possess one of the following credentials:
Doctoral Level Licensed psychologists (LP, Ph.D., Psy.D. or the state’s equivalent of an independently licensed psychologist)
Master’s Level Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW, LICSW, or the state’s equivalent of an independently licensed social worker)
Master’s Level Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT – or the state’s equivalent of an independently licensed marriage and family therapist)
Master’s Level Licensed Counselors (LPC, LPCC – or the state’s equivalent of an independently licensed counselor)
Counselors using the Uwill platform generally take a solutions-oriented, wholistic perspective to treatment with a focus on providing specific coping skills to address the issues you are facing. To accomplish this, counselors use a variety of approaches including but not limited to: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Mindfulness-Based Therapy.
Yes, you work with your counselor and select the format that best suits you. You can also choose multiple modalities of therapy based on your schedule and needs.
All currently enrolled Stevens students outside of New York and New Jersey receive 150 Uwill counseling credits. Credits will be deducted from your account as follows: Scheduled Video/Phone (30-minute session), = 30 credits; Scheduled Chat (15-minute sessions) = 15 credits; Messaging (2-way exchange) = 10 credits.
Yes, the credits must be used between 2/1/2021-1/31/2022 when they will expire.
Yes, you will have the option to continue working with a counselor once your credits are all used. More information on this is available in the student dashboard after you register.
No, credits cannot be transferred
For all scheduled appointments, you may cancel up to 24 hours prior to the time of the appointment. Within 24 hours of the appointment, it will be considered a no-show and the credits will be deducted from your account as if the session was held.
Yes, we are HIPAA and FERPA compliant which means we follow the strictest privacy guidelines. We never share your data – even on anonymized basis – to any third party – without your consent.