Good2Talk: First ever helpline for students

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: PROVIDED BY CONSTANTINA ELLINAS
Post-secondary students suffering from mental health illnesses are on the rise and Good2Talk is a service trying to help minimize these numbers.

Good2Talk helpline is a post-secondary student helpline that offers professional, free counselling and information and referrals to college and university students 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The helpline was created in 2015 and in response to a need for an increase in the mental health support for Ontario's post-secondary population that continues to grow.

“We know that the young people of ages 15 to 24 are experiencing more mental disorders and the students in particular are more worried about their post-secondary life, going to a new city or completely on their own for the first time,” said Megan Van Massenhoven, Good- 2Talk's outreach co-ordinator.

According to Van Massenhoven, students can access two avenues of support. The first is professional counseling where students can immediately be connected over the phone with a counsellor. The second is an information and referral helpline.

“The students can call us to ask any information about a mental health need and we can refer them to the services that they might not know,” Van Massenhoven said.

Dona Sajan, a first-year student at Fanshawe College shared her experience using Good2Talk.

“When I reached London for my post-secondary program, being in a new place made me more uncomfortable and stressed. I heard about Good2Talk helpline, I had a counselling session with one of their counsellors and it was really helpful for me to overcome my stress,” Sajan said.

According to Van Massenhoven, Good2Talk is fully funded by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, they have also aided for the funding program called The Mental Health Innovation Fund that specifically provides financial support to projects on campuses that deal with increasing mental health support for education.

Good2Talk is the only mental health innovation fund project that is not associated with one particular school, since they support every Ontario university and college.

There are also four different organizations partnered with Good- 2Talk to help deliver the services.

“Students can call us more than once, they are absolutely welcomed to use the service multiple times, but we don't keep any data of the specific caller. If the student is looking for ongoing regular service counselling we would likely refer them to something on campus or in the community,” Van Massenhoven noted.

“We have received 20,000 contacts from the post-secondary students each year and then as well we are doing the evaluation every year to measure the reach of Good2Talk among the students. We ask the caller to survey about their experience with Good2Talk,” Van Massenhoven said.

Good2Talk helpline is a great service for students who are struggling with their mental health. The students looking to get counselling from Good2Talk can call them at their post-secondary helpline 1-866-925-5454.