Mental health is a taboo subject to most people and others completely disregard it. It is often seen as an excuse rather than an explanation. The team at TimelyCare know that mental and physical well-being come first and understand that people do not get the proper care they need because of the price. Chief Strategy Officer Chris Clark, Chief Executive Officer Luke Hejl and Chief Medical Officer Alan Dennington, M.D., created a program that can benefit many people when it comes to health. 

TimelyCare is a program that provides 24/7 access to physical and mental telehealth care. There is free access to recieve help from professional nurses, doctors, counselors, virtual medical appointments and free employee referral help. Partnered with over 150 campuses nationwide, TimelyCare provides services to over 950,000 students. 

Jeffrey Benford, the Los Medanos College dean of Counseling and Student Support, provided insight on the program and how it has impacted people’s lives. 

“For many LMC students, self-care often takes a back-seat to the demands of work, class, study-time, a child or children and family. With 24/7 365 access to medical and mental health care, TimelyCare, essentially, keeps the doors of a healthcare clinic open, so that students are not impeded by barriers of income, conventional hours for business operation or the false shame that student experience when they ignore personal needs as they pursue life changing, educational and career dreams.”  

TimelyCare is committed to students so they do not have to pay thousands of dollars to be able to afford mental and medical healthcare. With a program that sounds this good, there has to be a catch right? No catch, only free access to medical professionals. No medical insurance is required at all. There is a fee to pay for prescriptions, Benford said.

“Students prescribed medication through TimelyCare medical services will be required to pay for their prescriptions; however, TimelyCare offers discounts that result in an average reduction of 60% in out-of-pocket costs.”

Many people in the Bay Area struggle with affording medical care and many go their whole lives without having it. According to the ABC7News website as of September 2021, “Out of all nine Bay Area counties, 4.5% of people are uninsured (this doesn’t include people in prisons, jails, or mental hospitals.)” 73% of those who were uninsured stated it was because of the cost of health insurance being too high. TimelyCare is completely free to LMC students and provides a plethora of resources. 

In times like these, it is important to keep one’s mental health in a good place. College students are surrounded by homework, deadlines, expectations and stress. TimelyCare is a resource to help take the weight off of people’s shoulders and allow them to get care the way they want it. 

To find out more about TimelyCare, you can attend one of the four Zoom orientations to be hosted next week by TimelyCare staff on Tuesday, May 3 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Wednesday, May 4  at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and registration is required. For morning sessions the Zoom ID is 970-3701-8485 and the Afternoon sessions’s Zoom ID is 958-7420-3055. To access the Zoom, visit the morning sessions and the afternoon sessions.