UNC launched a new mental health resource Wednesday to support the overall wellbeing of the Carolina community. The website aims to provide mental health tools within UNC’s campus and the surrounding Orange County community.
The Heels Care Network is a university wide partnership to fulfill the commitment to foster and extend a culture of compassion and care.
Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz announced the program in October 2021 following multiple student suicides on campus. The university later held a mental health summit in November to continue discussions about mental health.
“We realize there is no single solution here, but this is an important step forward,” the chancellor said in a statement. “We are committed to continuing this work until everyone in our community knows they are never alone.”
In addition to mental health services, the hub includes resources about suicide prevention, a care referral form and where to find 24/7 support.
Amy Johnson is the vice chancellor for student affairs at UNC. Johnson said the global mental health crisis has been brewing for years.
“For college age students, the needs for mental health has increased approximately three to four times,” the vice chancellor said. “It is just an extraordinary amount. That is the kind of thing for which counseling alone is not going to be a solution.”
Johnson said the partnership aims to make accessing help easy for everyone. She said the site is targeted to all members of the UNC community whether they be students, faculty or staff.
“It also has a great, new, comprehensive, searchable and filterable database with all of our mental health resources to support the members of our campus community,” Johnson said. “Folks can go in and identify key thing they’re interested or identify which communities they might represent to be able to tailor resources that might be of most interest to them.”
Other filters within the resource hub include urgency and wait time, cost and type of mental health need.
Another part of the network is the LSN program which stands Listen, Support, Navigate. It is a peer support program which aims to connect students in need with LSN student volunteers who can provide peer support. Beginning Monday, live chat with a LSNer will be available Sunday through Thursday.
Johnson said the university needed to pursue different avenues for accessing mental health both on the clinical and non-clinical level.
“We all have a role to play into helping to support our communities,” Johnson said.
Johnson said while the Heels Care Network might not change the need of mental health resources, she believes it will help to address the need in a comprehensive and multifaceted manner.
“One of the benefits of this mental health crisis is that we are talking about mental health in ways that we never have,” Johnson said. “We recognize that mental health affects every one of us. Trying to address that need will take all of us.”
The UNC executive branch is also providing additional mental health services to the UNC community. The branch launched Well Ride – a pilot program which aims to provide free transportation via Lyft to off-campus mental health appointments for undergraduate students.
To qualify for the program, students must be at least 18 years old and not have access to a car on campus or in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro area.
The funding for the Well Ride program was provided through a grant from the UNC Parents Council. The executive branch said it hopes the program can become a permanent service to help students without cars access off-campus health appointments.
To access the Heels Care Network, click here.
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