Health and Wellness Center launches new platforms

WeBe and TimelyCare are recently added resources the Center will offer to College students

Starting this semester, the College of William and Mary announced new partnerships with mental health resources WeBe and TimelyCare as a means to expand mental health services and promote wellbeing across campus.

TimelyCare is a free, on-demand teletherapy service available at all times to the student body. The platform is meant to complement the counseling and psychiatry services already available at the College’s Counseling Center.

The College also launched a pilot program with WeBe, a health promotion app that allows students to track their wellness, check in on friends and access resources to maintain healthy living.

This is the first university that the app has partnered with, and it has been working closely with administration and students to develop unique features for the College community.

These partnerships come after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased demand for mental health services, especially online resources.

They join and enhance existing resources available through the Student Health Center focused on helping students at all stages of their wellness journey.

Associate Vice President for Health and Wellness and Director of the Center for Mindfulness and Authentic Excellence Dr. Kelly Crace spoke about TimelyCare and WeBe with The Flat Hat following his presentation on wellness at the February Board of Visitors meeting.

“Students can come in with what is most important to them and engage in the modality that is most important for them, that they’re likely to be more open, more vulnerable and engaged in the work,” Crace said.

Students seeking non-emergency sessions at the Counseling Center often face long wait times at the College’s Counseling Center. The introduction of TimelyCare allows them the option to speak with a mental health professional online while waiting for an appointment at the Counseling Center.

“It provides us the opportunity to work more with students at a deeper level, quicker, and be able to work with them in a way that most fits their needs,” Crace said.

While TimelyCare is a resource for mental health intervention and treatment, WeBe focuses more on health promotion as a way of fostering resilience against crises.

“WeBe is kind of that preventative health promotion, keeping you tuned in to what’s well, tuned into what’s healthy for me, keeping me intentional about it, because the noise of our relentless world is going to pull you away from taking care of yourself,” Crace said.

Chief Executive Officer Dr. Barbara Van Dehlen and Chief Clinical and Science Officer Dr. Randy Phelps co-founded WeBe alongside Chief Operating Officer Michael Akinyele. The app allows users to track their own day-to-day wellbeing as well as keep up with the wellbeing of their trusted family and friends by creating and joining affinity groups or “Pods.”