More Resources Aren’t Enough 

Colleges and universities have invested significantly in expanding the wellbeing resources available to students — from mental health services and telehealth apps to basic needs programs, financial wellness, recreation, peer support, mindfulness workshops, and more. Yet many campuses continue to struggle with low student awareness and engagement, uneven utilization, and students who wait until they're in crisis to seek help. As a result, students who may not need clinical care can end up in counseling when their needs may be better addressed elsewhere. That can strain clinical capacity and leave students feeling like the support doesn’t fit. 

When engagement in a wellbeing program is low, the instinct may be to eliminate it, add different programs, or run additional information campaigns. But whether a resource lands with students might have less to do with its existence and more to do with timing and relevance. The right information at the wrong moment will likely miss the students who could benefit most. The deeper problem may not be a lack of resources or information but rather the gap between what’s available and what feels personally relevant, timely, and clear to students. 

Students are being asked to navigate increasingly complex support systems at the very moment they may be feeling stressed, disconnected, or unsure how to describe what they're feeling. It's incredibly difficult for a student (or anyone, really) to name what they need when they're already feeling overwhelmed or burned out.

For example, a student may know they’re exhausted because they’re not sleeping well. But without an opportunity to reflect, they may not realize that financial stress or a lack of belonging is what’s keeping them awake. Without that clarity, they may focus only on sleep hygiene when the more helpful next step might be financial aid, a campus job, peer support, or a place to build connection.  A long list of resources presented at orientation will not help resolve that uncertainty. It just hands the burden of figuring it all out back to the student, at the exact moment they're feeling overwhelmed. 

Starting Even Further Upstream

There's a phrase from the advertising industry that says: "You can't see the label when you're inside the jar." Some of us in the counseling world have borrowed this saying and applied it to our clinical work. When students are swirling around inside the jar, it’s hard for them to name what they need or see what might help. As counselors, we address this by asking the right questions, actively listening, and helping students take a step back, reflect, and untangle the factors that are keeping them stuck in the jar. This process builds agency and helps them put language to their needs and eventually act on them (i.e., climb out of the jar). 

What if we applied this same idea to all students, not just the ones who arrive at the counseling center? What if every student had the time and tools to define wellbeing for themselves, reflect on what feels most pressing, build language to ask for support, and take one meaningful next step? Giving all students this opportunity for upstream reflection and processing offers them clarity, language, and a relevant, manageable next step, helping turn awareness into meaningful action. 

The Limits of Information Delivery

Information about wellbeing topics and available resources is critical for students to have, but knowledge alone doesn't necessarily help them recognize their own needs or feel ready to seek support. A lot of campuses teach students about topics such as stress, sleep, nutrition, financial wellness, and mental health in hopes that students will remember and apply it later when they need it. But “here’s what we have on campus to take care of your wellbeing" is hard for many students to act on when it's not top of mind, especially when they're buried in academic pressure, navigating relationships, or trying to figure out where they belong. Wellbeing also means different things to different students, shaped by their identity, values, and circumstances. A student supporting family back home may define wellbeing very differently than one focused on making new social connections on campus. Starting from an institution's predetermined definition of wellbeing risks asking students to fit themselves into our framework instead of starting with theirs.

I would argue that a student’s insight does not come from the information or the resource; it's the reflection that makes the resource personal and relevant. That's the missing piece, and it's a chance to build agency and wellbeing literacy before a student ever reaches crisis level.

What Shifting the Approach Looks Like

Side by side, this shift might look like the table below. It's important to note that the left column isn't wrong but rather provides necessary groundwork. The issue is that it stops at delivery, whereas the right column first helps lead students to clarity, action, and appropriate resource use.

Questions Worth Sitting With

A few questions for anyone considering their approach:

The real barrier isn't always a shortage of information or resources. Sometimes it’s the gap between a student's overwhelm and their ability to name what's actually going on for them, personally. Closing that gap begins even further upstream than most colleges and universities start, with the chance for students to reflect, gain clarity, and turn a vague feeling or daunting challenge into one clear next step. When that’s done well, a resource list stops being something students have to decode completely on their own and becomes something they recognize as relevant to them personally — guiding them to reach out for the help they genuinely need, exactly when it matters most for them.

Anush Hansen is the founder and chief product officer at WellSort. She formerly served as a mental health counselor and wellness educator at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and the University of New Hampshire. Contact: anush@wellsort.com