West Virginia University has launched a new website to serve as the hub for all student health resources.

Dr. Clay Marsh, chancellor and executive dean at WVU Health Sciences, and his team of faculty and students at WVU’s Purpose Center coordinated the website in hopes of educating students about well-being and ways to get help on campus.

“The website … is really an effort for us to coordinate and have a single front door for people to be able to come to learn about all of the different offerings we have at the University,” Marsh said.

One benefit of the website is that it allows students and staff to identify and receive help for health needs anonymously.

“A lot of our students maybe know they need help or they want to seek help, but they don’t necessarily want to come out and be the person that says, ‘Hey, I do need help in one of those areas of my well-being,’” Colson Glover, a member of Marsh’s committee and former Mountaineer mascot, said.

“It’s an anonymous website that any student can go to, so you don’t have to worry about being judged. You don’t have to worry about a stigma that comes with it.” 

Although a goal of the website is to help alleviate bias around utilizing mental health services, the issue is starting to diminish on its own, according to WellWVU Director Courtney Weaver.

“One of the great things about Gen Z and students today is that there is such a willingness already to talk about mental health,” Weaver said. “Data is showing that, across the nation, even though enrollment overall is going down on college campuses, utilization of mental health services is actually on the rise, and I think that this [website] definitely helps with that.”

The website is based on WVU’s well-being model, which was developed in 2020. However, its unveiling was overshadowed by the pandemic, according to Weaver.

This new launch is a chance to introduce that model again.

The model explores physical and emotional well-being and how they work together as one.

“We have different dimensions of physical well-being: community, financial, social and purposeful, and then running all throughout them is your emotional well-being because we believe emotion is really tied into everything,” Olivia Pape, Collegiate Recovery Team director, said.

“Health isn’t just the absence of disease. We want to look holistically at how is your life going in all these different areas.”

The website will also help the University update and enhance its well-being programs that are currently offered, according to Marsh.

“We’re always open to feedback because this will constantly be changing because the resources at the institution grow and evolve as well,” Weaver said.

Over the last few years, WVU has increased mental health resources for students, developing new initiatives like this website and adding new counselor positions at the Carruth Center. 

“WVU is really taking mental health and making it a priority,” Glover said. “It really does bring pride … that we’re going to a university that’s prioritizing that and spending money and spending resources in areas where we can better the lives of our students overall.”

To check out the website, visit health.wvu.edu/well-being/.