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The mental health of post-secondary students was the topic of a roundtable discussion Wednesday morning on the University of Guelph campus. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne was in on it.
About 20 students circled around Wynne, Guelph MP Liz Sandals, and University of Guelph officials to talk about mental health challenges. The actual discussion was closed, but preliminary comments that were open to the media.
Wynne was in Guelph Wednesday morning to promote a new free tuition measure for post-secondary students, and changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program, as well as to hear from students about their most pressing concerns.
U of G has been rocked in recent months by untimely deaths, believed to be related to mental health challenges.
Wynne said the issue, and the discussion about it, is a societal one that has picked up momentum in the last few years.
“We are, as a government, committed to putting resources in place,” she told the gathering. “We have increased resources specifically for post-secondary institutions.”
She indicated that bridging the gap between on-campus and off-campus mental health services may be a matter that needs to be addressed.
“What are the stresses on young people that we need to face?” she asked. “There is obviously a continuum of support that we all need, but that young people particularly need - especially when young people are coming away from home for the first time, on their own in a context that’s new to them.”
Sandals indicated there has been a dramatic shedding of reluctance when it comes to frankly discussing mental illness. When she first entered public life about 15 years ago, mental health was barely talked about at the school board level, and little was allocated to it in budgets. That has all changed.
“What I’ve seen over the last two decades is just an elevated understanding of the nuances and complexities of mental health,” said Vaccarino, a neuroscientist who spent many years in the area of mental health research.
He added that the roundtable dialogue was timely given that it was Bell Let’s Talk day, a day to break the silence surrounding mental illness.
In an earlier interview Wednesday morning, U of G associate vice-president (student affairs), Brenda Whiteside, addressed the question of mental health services on campus. She was responding to recent calls for U of G to do more to help students.
“The thing about mental health is it is so complicated,” she said, standing in the Athletic Centre. Much of the impetus behind building the centre, she said, was to ensure students have access to facilities that enhance and maintain they’re overall sense of wellbeing.
“I think we have, next to maybe one other university, the highest proportion of counsellors and psychologists in the province,” Whiteside said. “But every year our data is showing that more and more students are wanting counselling, and regular counselling.”
There has been a major shift in expectations, she said. And complex mental health issues appear to be more common, requiring more complex care and attention.
“The real question is, is that a university’s responsibility?” she questioned, adding that universities are not funded to provide treatment for serious mental health conditions.
Whiteside indicated the university has done a lot, but it currently may not have the capacity to address growing heightened levels of demand.
“I think people know we have services,” she said. “What we don’t have, and what you’re hearing, is students saying, ‘I want to see a counsellor every week.’ We just don’t have that.”
More money has gone into wellness initiatives and counselling. But perhaps things like the way exams are scheduled needs to be looked at as part of an integrated approach.
“It has to be more of an integrated piece,” she said. “We need to find a way to help students to cope. We need to develop more resilience in them. Counselling is only one piece of the framework.”
It has long been thought that reducing the stigma around mental illness would increase the demand for mental health services, and that appears to be happening.
There has been a “significant increase” in the percentage of students who say they need counselling, and for a number of different mental health challenges, Whiteside added.
The university is looking at ways to disseminate valuable information to students on the coping skills and lifestyle choices that can help them become more resilient.
