Credit: Courtesy of OSU Counseling and Consultation Services
Students wandering campus looking for a quiet place to study for exams might come across posters in their search saying “Remember to Breathe & Relax” posted in CABS buses, the Union and buildings.
The advertisements are for Ohio State’s Counseling and Consultation Services’ new app. The free app, titled OSUCCS, is available for download on Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, and it is targeted at undergraduate and graduate students, with the goal of making offered services better known and available.
The CCS offers a range of services to undergraduate and graduate students at OSU, which include group counseling, drop-in workshops, individual counseling, couples counseling and psychological testing, and they also respond to personal crises on campus.
Continuing care through unlimited sessions are available to students with OSU Comprehensive Student Health Benefits Plan coverage, while students without the coverage are limited to 10 sessions.
Carrie Fleider, the assistant director of the CCS and one of the creators, said she hopes that by launching it, more students will come for help.
“The idea behind the app is to have the access to tools in your pocket,” Fleider said. “We designed it to be user friendly and we do a lot of outreach on campus, but this is a way to have prevention services.”
The CCS app provides a way for students to make appointments with the CCS and learn techniques for dealing with the stress and academic pressure some students feel as midterms approach.
The app includes stress busting recordings, a section dedicated to changing a bad mood into a good one, breathing techniques, emergency crisis contact info and links to the CCS website.
Fleider said she hopes to expand the app and add more features in the near future.
Jenna Von Sossan, a third-year in agribusiness and applied economics, has the app downloaded and uses it from time to time. She said she heard about the app on the CCS page and downloaded it then.
“(The app) is helpful for anyone, no matter what they are going through,” Von Sossan said. “It also is good for everyone to know about even if they think they would never need something like that, but with college, a lot of things can come up and there’s a lot of stress, so it’s nice to have a resource in case you need it.”
Correction Oct 8: An earlier version of this story stated students with OSU Comprehensive Student Health Benefits Plan coverage are limited to 20 visits with CCS, when in fact there is no limit to the number of visits available to students covered by the plan.
