Coaching for College Success: Prioritizing Student Health and Wellness
Featuring Kristen Buglione
Coaching for College Success: Prioritizing Student Health and Wellness
Tell us about TimelyCare as well as what role coaches play in your interdisciplinary model?
TimelyCare's mission is to foster student success and improve health and well-being on in campus communities, intending to expand equitable access to care. It partners with colleges and universities to increase the bandwidth of on-campus health and well-being resources and offer a comprehensive solution, including health coaching. TimelyCare's digital health solution serves more than 22,000,000 students at over 350 campuses, offering a wide range of services. These services include on-demand and scheduled success coaching, on-demand emotional support, scheduled therapy, on-demand and scheduled medical care, scheduled psychiatry, and scheduled health coaching. Additionally, digital self-care tools are available for students to access outside of visits with providers or coaches. The health coaches play a significant role in the continuity of care the members receive, meeting live, one on one, with members to support behavior change. They also serve as a referral for TimelyCare providers.
What trends are you seeing across students and staff and how are coaches supporting them given these trends?
Students, faculty, and staff face numerous demands in managing and prioritizing their schedules. Trends show an overwhelming interest in managing time efficiently to facilitate activities such as sleep and exercise. There's a strong desire to prioritize these activities and find balance. Health and wellness coaches help the members see the big vision, narrow down an area of focus, set goals, identify strategies, and start to make progress. An essential part of the process is understanding what a typical day or week looks like for the member to identify opportunities to fit in their desired activities. This method not only helps members schedule their activities but also gives them a sense of control and knowing what to expect in their typical day, which contributes to feelings of satisfaction and happiness with their day-to-day and work or school life.
How does TimelyCare keep things individualized and with cultural competency in mind?
Neal Sundberg initiates a discussion about the role of TimelyCare in keeping individualization and cultural competency as their priority. Kristen Buglione, in response, emphasises the significance of their role as an extension of institutions, maintaining an understanding of students or faculty using their services. The employment of technology plays a crucial role in providing an individualized, personalized and inclusive experience. Certain details about the member and their institution can be accessed prior to the visit which equips the coach with pertinent information. These details include past interactions with TimelyCare, services available to them, and some personal details the member provides during the booking process. There is also transparency as members get to view a profile about coaches before meetings. TimelyCare's services have shown an overrepresentation of demographic use than would be expected based on institution demographics. This demonstrates the positive influence of accessibility and inclusivity afforded through technology in encouraging those who wouldn’t typically seek in-person services. The technology also promotes inclusivity by offering accessibility features, such as closed captioning and translation services, without delaying care. The future seems exciting with a focus on health and wellness coaching and TimelyCare being significant contributors.
What excites you most about the future of Health and Wellness Coaching and/or TimelyCare?
Neal Sundberg asked about what excites Kristen Buglione regarding the future of health and wellness coaching or TimelyCare. Kristen conveyed her enthusiasm about seeing health and wellness coaching continue to grow, not only at TimelyCare but also in the digital health arena overall. In addition to this, Kristen emphasized the importance of integrating health coaches into the spectrum of care, highlighting the opportunities for coaches to not only help a wider demographic in staying healthy, reducing long-term health issues and improving outcomes, but also to engage in interprofessional collaborations that allows for comprehensive support to meet individual needs. Neal agreed with Kristen's hope for the expansion of health coaching as a career path, and agreed on health coaching as a growing field with endless opportunities.
Final thoughts?
For her final thoughts, Kristen coordinates a message to college students on being proactive and utilizing the resources available to them for their own wellbeing. She emphasized the importance of seeking out available assistance and being proactive in reaching out for support. Neal Sundberg then concluded the segment by expressing gratitude to Kristen for her insightful knowledge shared.
