Did you know that some local community colleges offer mental health services to high school students who enroll in at least one community college class during a semester? Through dual enrollment and special admit programs, high school students can access one-on-one therapy and 24/7 resources for their mental health. Some community colleges provide relatively low-cost access to mental health therapy that can otherwise cost more outside of these colleges and the opportunity to work one-on-one with a highly skilled professional.
Any student that is enrolled in a class, credit or non-credit, and has paid the health fee can access the college’s therapy services, including individual therapy and crisis walk-in services. Orange Coast also offers an after-hours crisis phone line, which is available after 5 p.m. during weekdays and anytime during weekends.
During the spring and fall semesters, the college offers group therapy with groups such as a Dungeons and Dragons therapy group, neurodivergent group and dating and relationships group. These are confidential services.
High school students can visit their website and email, make a call or text to access these mental health services.
High school students who are concurrently enrolling at Cerritos College can utilize their mental health services as long as they pay the health fee. Angela Luther, manager of mental health services at Cerritos College and licensed clinical social worker, said that while signing up for therapy can feel intimidating, the process is hugely rewarding.
“We can seek help even when we are scared, right? So when we say don’t be afraid to, well, you might be afraid, but do it anyway,” Luther said. “A lot of the things that we do in life that mean a lot and are really important are things that we’re afraid to do.”
Long Beach City College (LBCC)
High school students in the Long Beach Unified School District can utilize LBCC’s short-term model treatment and long-term care. They also offer a mental health platform called TimelyCare, a 24/7 service offering quick talk sessions and ongoing therapy at any time, including after-hours and weekends.
At GWC, high school dual enrollment students are not required to pay the health fee, but if they choose to pay this flat fee, they gain access to confidential in-person or remote counseling, including therapy consisting of about eight sessions or TimelyCare for tele-therapy sessions.
“I hope students are not afraid to ask for help,” said Dr. Judy Cheng-Chen, director of the student health center at GWC. “Getting help is really important.”
High school students who are dual enrolled at De Anza College have access to their mental health services, which include ten one-on-one therapy sessions and Uwill, providing 24/7 mental health support and one-on-one therapy.
Michael Hu, an incoming freshman at UC Berkeley, was dual enrolled at De Anza and took calculus and business law classes there.
“Thankfully, I’ve been really blessed to have a lot of great people in my life who were able to help me out during all those times of burnout and depression,” Hu said. “But they were definitely offered to me and there’s a lot of posters and stuff that lets you know that it’s available around campus.”
Cypress College’s mental health services aren’t offered to high school students. Currently, the services are for Cypress College students only.
“Yeah, I don’t think we necessarily have it but we are kind of in talks with partnering with some of the high schoolers,” said Raylan Camarena, mental health therapist at Cypress College. “We’re getting sort of a shift in people being more interested in their outside.”
Ezra Lim is another mental health therapist at Cypress College.
“Each of us [employees] specializes in something different,” said Ezra Lim, mental health therapist at Cypress College. “But generally we specialize in just helping students kind of adjust to transitions. That means people coming in from high school straight to college.”
Some students from Oxford Academy have also shared their opinions on the mental health services at Cypress College. One of them is Jessica Murphy, a rising sophomore who took network security at the college. She hasn’t taken advantage of the mental health services because her class is online and her mental health is currently stable, as she stated. She also shared how Oxford Academy brought an awareness of mental health services.
“I am aware that these services are on this campus because of the class I took from ninth grade, counseling,” Murphy said. “It taught us about the mental health services and all other services at Cypress [College], so I think pretty much everyone in my grade also knows about these services.”
All students at Oxford Academy take this counseling class in freshman year.
Abhiram Madineedi, a rising senior at Oxford, took dual enrollment classes at both Cypress and Fullerton College. This summer, he’s taking communications and history of rock classes. He said that he knows the mental health services exist but he hasn’t taken advantage of them.
“And I think most of the time usually others are fine as well, but there I think there are times they feel a little bit overwhelmed due to dual enrollment,” Madineedi said. “And especially during the regular school year, taking both dual enrollment and regular AP classes and stuff can make some people feel overwhelmed at times.”
These mental health services are a valuable opportunity for dual enrolled high school students to improve their mental health and manage the academic stress that comes at any time of the year.
