Keys to improving the system
From increased training to more peer support, advocates weigh in on how to fix system
The start of college or university can be a challenging time for students. They may be living away from home for the first time, far from their friends and family. They are adjusting to a new environment and learning to balance classes with part-time jobs, new friendships and relationships.
Many university and college students will look for mental-health care, on or off-campus.
With thousands of young people set to return to university and college campuses across Canada, mentalhealth advocates, care providers, post-secondary students and staff weighed in on what makes a strong campus mental-health system. Embedded counsellors within each faculty or department Different programs can have different mental-health needs and challenges, said Bita Pourvahidi, a recent graduate of Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management.
“Like, in Ryerson’s business school, because it’s such a competitive environment, not only is there stigma surrounding mental health already, (but) if you’re a business student and you have a mental illness, you may be seen as weaker, because business is so dog-eat-dog,” Pourvahidi said.
Queen’s University has embedded mental-health counsellors in its academic faculties and residence buildings over the past few years.
“It enables them to be aware of crisis point or stressors or times of year when students might be feeling particular stress and they’re aware of that,” said Ann Tierney, Queen’s Vice-Provost and Dean of Student Affairs.
“It also increases access to students. Some students might want to go to a service in their faculty because they feel a strong connection to their faculty. Just like they go to an academic adviser.” Centralized mental-health services “Sometimes there are so many resources that a student feels overwhelmed and they don’t know where to start,” said Tamara Sherwood, a student at the University of Toronto who has worked as a peer health educator, informing students of services on campus.
“I think all of these services should be in one place — the same place as any physical health resources,” University of Guelph student Alyssa Logan said. “If we keep them together, it will make it less likely that stigma will control a situation.”
“Definitely (campuses need) services that are clearly communicated to students and very accessible,” said Eric Windeler, co-founder of the youth mental-health organization Jack.org.
“Mix mental-health services in with all the other health and sexual services on campus so you can go in to to talk to somebody without everyone knowing you’re going down this hall so you must need help with your mental health.” Proactive student outreach “As you’re being welcomed as a potential student there should be some education about how (the university) is making sure they’re doing the best here to inform you about the challenges around mental health, provide you with some initial services and screening and some actual services if you’re struggling,” Windeler, of Jack.org, said. Peer Support “Peer-to-peer support is critical,” University of Guelph student Alyssa Logan said. “I think most students would rather their friends know about their struggles than a university admin.”
With proper diversion of students based on their needs, peer support can also free up professional therapists for patients with more serious needs, Waterloo graduate and mental-health advocate Alicia Raimundo said.
“It can make it so that more of the (professional) counsellors’ time is spent with people who really do need that level of support and then people who really just need someone to talk to can talk to a peer,” Raimundo said. “Right now we have a mentalhealth system on a lot of our campuses where people are getting very skilled support when maybe they don’t need that level of skill, they just need someone to talk to.”
At the University of Toronto, peer health educators such as Sherwood offer information on campus services, and a friendly ear.
“Especially in a university setting . . . illnesses like anxiety and depression feed off of loneliness and isolation,” Sherwood said. Training for professors, TAs and residence staff Professors, teaching assistants and academic counsellors should be trained to be more attuned to the mental-health needs of students, said Taryn MacDonald, who graduated from the University of Guelph this year.
“Oftentimes, these are the people who will be seeing students the most,” added MacDonald, who sought counselling for anxiety issues while a student.
“If a professor or a TA sees a student struggling during office hours or a tutorial, they need to be able to know how to support that student and how to offer them advice on the appropriate next steps (such as) referring them to counselling or accessibility services.”
One of the ways universities can try to meet the growing demand for mental-health services is to better understand which people students turn to when they need help, said Erik Labrosse, director of student wellness at Laurentian University.
“Sometimes it’s a friend, sometimes it’s a professor, sometimes it’s a residence assistant.”
Windeler, whose son died by suicide in his first year at Queen’s in 2010, said universities should be training people in close contact with students — such as teaching assistants and residence staff — to recognize early signs of distress.
“When we did the digging back to what happened in our situations, we weren’t being told about it by our son but there were lots of signals that would have spelled that things had gone way off the rails,” he said. Transitions from on-campus to off-campus services Those transitions can be especially vital for students preparing to graduate and leave the school.
“When I graduated, I lost all of my support. The school really didn’t care about me except to ask for donations,” Raimundo said.
“That transition out of school, especially in an economy that’s not great, really sucks for a lot of students, especially students with mental illness.
“If we can find a way to support those students now that they’re going into the big wide world, with no structure and maybe no job, (and ensure) that they still have a connection to some support organization that’s committed to supporting them long term.”