logo

How does TimelyCare keep things individualized and with cultural competency in mind?

The Health and Wellness Coaching Podcast | Coaching for College Success: Prioritizing Student Health and Wellness

Neal Sundberg: And so such a a large part of, like, coaching is make sure we're keeping things individualized or or keeping things like cultural competency in mind. So curious, like, from your perspective, how does TimelyCare and the coaches, prioritize those things? Yeah.
Kristen Buglione: That's such a great question, and I think it's so important. Right? You You know, especially in the role that we play as an serving as an extension of the institution, I think it's really important that the student or the faculty and staff member that's coming to use our services, feels like we we we know who they are. We know what school they they're with. You know, we can tailor the support that we're providing them. And I think on our end, what really helps us is our technology. And, there's a couple different ways I think technology plays a role in this in helping both the member in their experience in interacting with our coaching services and then also for our coaches, how they can deliver a really individualized and personalized and inclusive experience for for those members. So one of the big ways, our technology helps us is is is providing information to the coach ahead of the visit. So when we log in, we can, go to that visit and pull up, some pertinent information to the member and the institution, which is which is really helpful. So we can see what institution their the member's associated with. We can see what touch points they've had with other services, through TimelyCare. We can see things like, if they haven't had touch points, what services they have available to them both through TimelyCare and on their campus. So the institution's providing information. We can see at you know, even before the visit starts, and then we can see some internal information that's really helpful. And then when the member registers and schedules the visit, they're also providing some information on themselves that can be helpful for our our coaches to know ahead of time, things like, you know, their pronouns, the name they go by, you know, some medical information, past health history. All of that sort of helps orient the coach ahead of time and, you know, can really help deliver that individualized and personalized and inclusive care, which I think is really, really important. Yeah. So so so important.
Neal Sundberg: And what you said too about, like, being a part of kind of the universe or an extension, I think you said, of the, the institution or or the college, so important. Because I can imagine when you're having coaching conversations, there's something that someone says and then maybe it's like financial support or or some other type of support that they might need and having that readily available could really, I mean, just have even larger impact in coaching alone. Totally. Yeah.
Kristen Buglione: And then on the flip side, the members also have access to some information about the coaches ahead of time. So when when a member goes to schedule, they can also see a profile of the coach, and and they have choice in who they schedule with. And I've had I've had some really cool interactions where, you know, the member is like, you know, I was interested in scheduling a health coaching visit because I wanna explore x, y, and z. Mhmm. And I saw when I went to schedule it that you have some experience with that or, you know, you've done x, y, and z in your background or, you know, your lived experience that you shared a little bit about in your profile, like, really resonated with me. So we're seeing that, that opportunity to get, some information ahead of time for the member is also really impactful. We actually we did some research recently, and published some research recently that demonstrates that a greater proportion of Asian, black, and multiracial undergraduate students are using our virtual mental health services than would be expected based on what the, yeah, what the demographics look like, institutions we partner with. So we're we're seeing that things like that. Right? Having, ease of access acts, ease of access, and and those inclusive practices that, you know, are built into the technology that that aren't, a blocker to care or in delaying care, it's it's built into the experience, are, really making a difference for students who wouldn't typically seek in person services. So, yeah, it's another way I think our technology really is helping with that inclusive piece. Yeah. It's really interesting.
Neal Sundberg: I almost wonder, like, where my head went was, like, whether, like, faculty, staff in a specific, like, location is probably maybe not as diverse as when it's spread out across or or as diverse as even potentially the students who are going there, but offering it through technology offers a much wider, array of selection to choose from. Yeah. Absolutely. I think that's really the key. Right?
Kristen Buglione: You know, just take coaching services in general. Not not a lot of campuses are able to offer that if they are. You know, in my experience, I was one one person who who offered it, you know, on a campus. So, you know, you're getting you're getting me and my characteristics and my experience. Right? And if someone is looking for something different, they'd really have to go seek that out on their own. So timely care can really help. It extends extends what's offered in a number of different ways. I think something else too that's that's, you know, important I think we're seeing important in a lot of different ways is, just general accessibility features. So getting on to a visit, being able to, turn on closed captioning, and then also being able to to invite in some translation services, I think, is another way technology helps with that inclusivity piece. And, again, like, isn't delaying care, you know, to try and find someone who can, you know, meet with, a member who has a specific language need or accessibility need, but it's Yeah. Built in. Right? It's it's it's available right there in the visit. Yeah.
Neal Sundberg: It's a it's a great callout because I can imagine if you do have those specific requests, the the time that it could take to actually see someone as things potentially continue to get worse or just are unaddressed, for sure. Yeah. Awesome.