For the past year, a partnership between CWU and TimelyMD has created an online resource for students that provides healthcare services at no charge. Students are able to access immediate care for medical and mental health support. 

Cindy Bruns, director of student counseling services, explained how CWU partnered with the national telehealth company to create WildcatCare 365 in late spring 2020. 

“We wanted to expand the services that student health was already offering,” Bruns said. 

This program is offered at no cost to students because the service is covered by the health and counseling fee within tuition. Any student registered for any number of classes has the opportunity to use this resource at any time. 

There are five total services offered: medical, health and wellness coaching, TalkNow, scheduled counseling and telepsychiatry. A note about telepsychiatry is that students need to first reach out to CWU counseling before pursuing this service. 

Students can access these services by going to wildcatcare365.com and registering using their CWU email. Once the registration is completed, students can start accessing the services. 

“This service can be used for mild cases to severe cases,” Bruns said. “These professionals are waiting up all day and night because they want to hear from you and listen to your stories.” 

Students do not need to visit the same professional for every visit, as their medical data is shared with each professional that the student chooses. 

“This service is protected by HIPPA and medical information has the same level of protections as the Student Medical and Counseling Clinic,” Bruns said. “There are even some things that student services don’t see.”

Interactions and data that is shared with these professionals is not shared with CWU administration, and data is rarely shared between services outside of TimelyMD.

“Something that is really nice about this resource is that you can literally access it at any time of day,” Bruns said. “You might not be able to talk about your situation until the people you are living with are asleep, which might be at 2 a.m.”

An additional factor that further adds to the accessibility of WildcatCare 365 is any student who is enrolled is able to access these services from anywhere in the country. 

“If a student is enrolled at CWU, but might be in a different state, they can still access a professional,” Bruns said. “What’s even cooler is that TimelyMD will connect you with a licensed professional in the state that the student is currently residing in.”  

Bruns hopes that along with greater accessibility to health services, the stigma surrounding telehealth services will start to diminish as well.