Thanks to the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, PeerForward is thrilled to be able to offer our college students free therapy sessions with BetterHelp this academic year! Eligible students may register here for four sessions with a BetterHelp provider.
BetterHelp is the largest therapy provider in the world, with 13,000 therapists speaking 44 different languages. With more than 25% of its therapists self-identifying as BIPOC, BetterHelp is well-suited to serve PeerForward’s diverse college network. To make sure each student’s needs are met, students are matched with a therapist based on their listed preferences of language, gender, racial identity, sexual orientation, and/or mental health issue.
By partnering with BetterHelp, PeerForward is doing its part to address the obstacles to mental health treatment faced by Black, Latinx, and low-income communities. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), less than 2% of APA members identify as Black, and even fewer identify as Hispanic. Culturally competent therapists for BIPOC patients are scarce as a result. Financial barriers to mental health treatment are also prevalent: the APA reports that 11% of Black Americans lack health insurance coverage, 4% more than non-Hispanic whites. The rate of uninsured Hispanic/Latinx Americans is even higher at 21.1%, due to a combination of factors including immigration and citizenship status.
Ensuring access to mental health counseling for college students is also increasingly important, as PLOS One reports that rates of anxiety and depression have grown over the pandemic by 7.2% and 10.2%, respectively. BetterHelp’s services are ideal for adjusting to college students’ busy schedules. Phone and video appointments are available as well as text and chat, so that students can maintain flexibility and privacy while getting the support they need.
We are so excited for our students to take advantage of all that BetterHelp has to offer, and we’re wishing them good luck in the 2021-22 academic year!
