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SilverCloud: During the first week of June 2021, the University of Michigan Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) announced their plan to use the platform SilverCloud, an online tool that provides students and faculty with access to mental health resources at no cost (Payne). SilverCloud offers a set of modules that users can navigate through on their own time, at their own pace, adopting an asynchronous counseling model (Payne). The modules do not replace in-person counseling with an expert, however, as according to the CAPS website, SilverCloud was designed as a supplement to in-person care meant to assist with daily stress and anxiety, improve resilience, learn new skills to better understand thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and lastly, reduce the symptoms that accompany depression and anxiety. CAPS Director Todd Sevig endorses SilverCloud for not just being an article on a website, but rather a comprehensive program that students can access any time, any place, on any device, suggesting that these reasons are aspects of the tool that attracted the University of Michigan to SilverCloud over other competitors (Payne).
Positive feedback from student users also likely induced the University of Michigan to choose SilverCloud. Sam Beenstock, a member of the CAPS Student Advisory Board, praised SilverCloud’s user-friendly features and versatility (Payne). Its user-friendliness manifests via simply-worded explanations that help explain confusing concepts (Payne). Beenstock elaborates on the versatility as well, saying that SilverCloud offers different programs based on what users want to focus on, and that each module offers video from actual licensed therapists and quizzes that give you beneficial insights into yourself, such as how you cope best with stress (Payne).
Finally, SilverCloud has a long list of metrics and accolades making them a very attractive choice for universities such as the University of Michigan. SilverCloud was created by a team of medical experts who used nearly two decades worth of medical research (About Us: SilverCloud® by Amwell®: UK Mental Health Services). Up to 80% of users displayed improvement in depression and anxiety symptoms, and up to 65% of users experienced clinically significant improvement (About Us: SilverCloud® by Amwell®: UK Mental Health Services). SilverCloud has been proven to treat 4 times the members at 1/4 the cost of face-to-face therapy and had a 93% user satisfaction rate (About Us: SilverCloud® by Amwell®: UK Mental Health Services). As if the metrics were not enough reason to choose SilverCloud, SilverCloud has been featured in Women’sHealth, The Economist, The Guardian, Fortune, The BusinessPost, Metro, The Irish Times, and Obs Gynae and Midwifery News (About Us: SilverCloud® by Amwell®: UK Mental Health Services). All in all, SilverCloud has helped over a million users think and feel better (About Us: SilverCloud® by Amwell®: UK Mental Health Services).
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Uwill: The University of Michigan’s partnership with teletherapy provider Uwill provides students with 180 free credits, or 6 30-minute sessions, with a counselor of the students’ choosing (Anderson). The sessions include same-day appointments and licensed mental health counseling, by chat, phone, or video (Dodge). The partnership with Uwill gives students access to licensed therapists in every U.S. state as well as a select few international therapists, with the best part being that signing up only takes two minutes (Dodge). Uwill also incorporated the latest technologies into their services, using artificial intelligence to match students with therapists based on student needs (Bamforth). The University of Michigan conducted a pilot program that resulted in over 450 students scheduling over 750 sessions, with the consensus of the reviews of the service being extremely positive (Taeckens). The University of Michigan Public Affairs Department wrote in a statement that “based on the success of this pilot we are ready to offer this service to all U-M students,” thus showing why Uwill was chosen (Taeckens). Uwill’s impressive track record certainly also served as a factor in the decision; Uwill has established partnerships with UC Santa Barbara, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), New England Law | Boston Partners, and the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, which selected Uwill as a statewide provider for its 29 public universities (Uwill, Bamforth).
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