Taking care of your health means taking care of your whole health — body and mind. That’s one reason the University of Colorado provides many options for mental health and wellness support.

To find support that’s right for you, Employee Services provides a list of mental health resources on the Employee Services website and on the CU Advantage website (which catalogs all benefits and perks available to employees on all campuses).

Below, you can learn more about available mental health tools based on your needs.

Long-term and general options

Faculty and staff can access regular counseling, talk therapy or psychiatric services through the university’s Anthem and Kaiser health plans. All medical plans offer one no-cost preventative health care visit per plan year (July 1 – June 30), and enrolled members should examine their plan booklet to understand the full spectrum of mental health services coverage offered by their specific plan.

You can find links to all the plan booklets as well as links to find covered providers within the Anthem and Kaiser networks on the mental health resources page.

You can also seek out campus-specific resources. CU Boulder offers access to telehealth therapy through AcademicLiveCare, and UCCS offers resources through SilverCloud and My Resilience.

Self-guided and targeted options

For those who wish to engage in self-directed mental health practices or looking to address a specific concern, such as stress management or sleep quality, more options are available.

First, CU Health plans offer supplemental mental health tools through your plan administrator.

CU Health Plans - Extended, Exclusive and High Deductible:

• LiveHealth Online — Anthem’s telehealth portal gives plan members access to medical, psychological, psychiatric and allergy-related care through video or live chat.
• Sleepio — This platform uses research-backed techniques to help improve the quality of your sleep including time to fall asleep, depth of sleep and duration.

CU Health Plan Kaiser offers:

• myStrength — This app offers a personalized program that includes interactive activities, in-the-moment coping tools, inspirational resources and community support to help users cope with depression, anxiety, sleep, stress, substance use and chronic pain.
• Calm — This popular app helps users reduce stress and manage anxiety through mindfulness techniques.
• Headspace Care (formerly Ginger) — This app facilitates a connection between users and professional coaches who can walk you through dealing with common challenges such as stress, grief, problems at work or home and more.

Beyond CU’s health plans, all employees can access a series of curated LinkedIn Learning courses on nurturing mental health, creating better work-life balance and cultivating your personal sense of purpose.

Emergency and short-term options

When faced with sudden or significant challenges, employees can reach out to the Colorado State Employee Assistance Program. This is a free resource to all state employees and offers mental health counseling, critical incident response, mediation and more. (You can read about one employee’s experience using CSEAP to access care for PTSD after a traumatic birth.)

For many years, CU employees could contact the Real Help Hotline. However, that service was discontinued on Aug. 31. Colorado residents can reach out to Colorado Crisis Services, the state 988 hotline or I Matter for youth services.

Lastly, there are numerous national resources available, including:

• National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (including Spanish and hearing impaired options).
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline.
• National Domestic Violence Hotline.
• And many more.