Jackson College is taking the mental health of the students seriously with the introduction of Togetherall, an anonymous peer-to-peer social platform where students can connect with others experiencing similar challenges.

Togetherall Account Manager Ashley Knost explains that anonymity helps students feel more comfortable sharing their feelings.

“You have somebody on the other end that isn’t going to stigmatize you or give their thoughts and feelings about you because they know you,” she said. “They’re going to be somebody that’s a neutral person to be able to express how you’re feeling or give you that feedback.”

Overcoming Isolation

Knost says she is seeing more isolation happening as students are digitally focused. To combat that, they are meeting students where they are – online. It is monitored by licensed clinicians 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Their main focus is to have eyes on it if there is any risk that gets put in the platform or anything that you would want a clinician to intervene with, but for the most part they’re there to help encourage the rest of the community to weigh in on some of the conversations that are happening and having that warm touch there,” she said.

Oasis Center

But, if peer-to-peer support isn’t enough and you would prefer in-person help, Jackson College also offers the Oasis Center, a drop-in facility on campus for mental health support. According to Family Services and Children’s Agency Chief Operating Officer Sarah Sabin, the concept allows students to pop in during their busy schedules when the need arises.

“So that way, they can come in on their own schedule and be able to see a mental health professional and get that support when they’re needing it the most,” she said.

Sabin noted students are more open about their mental health.

“They’re coming forth and talking about their anxiety, talking about their depression,” she said. “They’re talking about their trauma and wanting to get support, wanting to get some resolution and learn new skills to be able to cope more efficiently with some of the stresses that they’re experiencing.”

The demand for support has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic with a nationwide shortage of providers making access difficult.

“By providing those services on-site, Jackson College removes any barriers to their students or their employees and accessing those much needed mental health supports,” Sabin said.

More Providers

The Oasis Center will be expanding their services by adding another on-site mental health therapist made possible through Barrier Removal – Growing Institutional Capacity, offered by the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement and Potential (MiLEAP).

“Now we can do some real engagement on campus and go meet the students where they are at like the Jets Hangar or the cafeteria,” Sabin said. “We can go out and find the students, engage with them and provide them a different type of service than what the traditional one-on-one therapy is.”

In tandem with Togetherall, they will help promote the platform to ensure that students know how to engage with it and how to utilize it.

“I think it’s becoming more popular to be able to talk about your feelings but encouraging students to know that it’s okay to find supportive services and if going in person is not what you feel like you need in the moment and that you have an option in your toolkit to be able to get that support from other peers and or professionals,” Knost said.

There are also self-assessments, courses and other resources within the platform so if you want to explore and learn more on your own, you have that ability.

“Social and digital sites can be scary if you’ve ever ventured into any other social platform, there’s trolling, bullying, and a lot of negative that comes out of it,” Knost said.

“Togetherall’s overall goal would be to allow people a safe, comfortable place to talk about how they’re feeling, knowing they’re coming through genuine and authentic and if they do need additional support, there is somebody that can help them.”

With the potential benefit of bettering the mental health of anybody who uses the services provided at Jackson College or through the platform.

“Maybe it’s their first year away from home, they just want to kind of vent or get something off their chest. We are not promoted as a crisis service. We can handle it if it happens on our platform, but we’re really just a place to go and vent. Get things off your chest. We’re hoping to connect with those students who are just needing a place to talk with other people about anything. We have a wide variety of topics on our platform. It’s not all deep and dark and heavy mental health content. There’s uplifting and positive content too.”

To join Togetherall you need to have a student e-mail account through Jackson College (my.jccmi.edu). Click here to register for Togetherall.