PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico University Athletics will be offering free mental health services to student-athletes this year.

ENMU Athletics and TalkSpace are entering a partnership to help the 300+ Greyhound student-athletes beginning September 1.

"Providing a mental health resource like TalkSpace for our student-athletes is incredible," said assistant athletic director Elizabeth Acosta. "We wanted to bring an accessible program focused on mental health to ENMU and this is exactly that."

The program is a digital platform giving users access to a licensed therapist through a simple message. Ninety percent of surveyed users prefer TalkSpace over face-to-face therapy.

Student-athletes will be able to create an account on www.talkspace.com

"This is a tremendous support mechanism for all of our student-athletes here at ENMU and we are thankful to have the resources to be able to provide this opportunity for them," said director of athletics Dr. Paul Weir. "The NCAA has emphasized mental health to its membership and we hope this is the beginning of many new initiatives to offer the best student-athlete experience we possibly can here at Eastern."

TalkSpace allows users to be matched with the right therapist for them based on preferences. Then, messages can be sent at anytime through text, video, and audio. Users will connect with the same therapist unless a request to switch happens.

The app currently has over one million users and counting.