Meeting reveals services must be better communicated to students
On Dec. 5, University of Guelph student Victoria Raymond (@vraymondd) tweeted about the state of mental health at U of G:
The initial tweet has since reached 920 likes and 373 retweets at the time of publishing. The thread that followed criticized the University of Guelph’s handling of mental health as Raymond touched on the following points:
- The lack of a fall reading week and the impact that has on mental health (i.e. makes it more difficult to refill prescription medications)
- The need for more mental healthcare staff at U of G; specifically psychiatrists who can prescribe and write refills for medications
- The long wait times for counselling services during stressful times of the year, such as midterms and exam periods
Others joined in the conversation on Twitter, many of whom agreed with Raymond’s assessment and criticisms of U of G’s services.
Raymond’s tweet about the University’s response following the loss of four University of Guelph students due to suicide over the course of five months in the 2016-2017 school year was especially critical.
Raymond’s view that “suicides are brushed away” was challenged by @gabbiwils, whose Twitter profile states that she is a “bio sci student” at U of G.
@gabbiwils did not respond to a request for comment from The Ontarion at the time of publishing, but was very active on the Twitter thread, offering an opposing view to Raymond’s.
Carrie Chassels — vice-provost of student affairs at U of G — responded to Raymond’s tweets and offered to set up a meeting to discuss Raymond’s concerns.
The meeting, which took place on Dec. 11, was attended by Raymond, three unnamed students, Carrie Chassels, and Alison Burnett (director of Student Wellness Services at the University of Guelph).
The Ontarion reached out to Raymond, Chassels, and Burnett about the meeting. While Raymond did not respond to The Ontarion’s questions at the time of publishing, the following tweet was pinned to @vraymondd’s twitter feed following the meeting:
Chassels, who responded to The Ontarion’s questions via email, and Burnett, who came to The Ontarion office for a sit-down interview, both agreed that the meeting went very well from their perspectives.
“I thought the meeting went excellent, actually,” said Burnett. “I think our goals are the same and that we’re working very hard to improve mental health for students on campus. So, love the opportunity to have those conversations. I would always encourage people to come forward if they have ideas or concerns or their experiences were not what they expected to reach out and have those conversations. Overall I think it went really well, we had some great conversation, lots of ideas exchanged, a good starting place.”
“I really appreciated the thoughtful insight that Victoria and the other students shared with me,” said Chassels. “Although I wish that more students would do as they did and make arrangements to speak directly about their concerns, I do understand that it takes courage. It’s my hope that as more students at U of G get to know administrators like me and the Student Affairs Directors, they will feel comfortable to talk with us about their experiences.
“We genuinely care about our students and we appreciate it when students give us an opportunity to learn more about their needs so we can do what we can to provide support,” Chassels continued. “Victoria and the other students gave me many great ideas that I know I’m going to be able to put into action. I have only been at U of G for four months, but I already know one thing for sure… This is a university where students make things happen!”
Gathering student feedback on mental health services
The Ontarion also asked Burnett what students who prefer a more private means of providing feedback could do to reach someone.
“If they went on the Student Wellness website, you could find a directory of our staff, so you could speak to any of the staff, who would in turn direct them to myself. And I would be more than happy to sit down with students to have conversations about their experience,” said Burnett.
In response to how the University takes student feedback into account in the planning and implementation of services for mental health, Burnett explained that the process is organic. “There’s different opportunities for students to engage and to bring questions forward,” said Burnett. “The student wellness services has a student wellness advisory group, so we come together to talk about issues and concerns around our services. We take those ideas, we talk about them, sometimes you have to sort of prioritize — because you can’t do everything all at the same time — so you try to prioritize in terms of impact and benefit, so it’s not a straight line. And sometimes you do the consultation and then you implement something and evaluate it and you go back and redo it. Constantly a very iterative process in terms of development.”
In regards to gathering feedback from students, Chassels said that she meets “at least twice a month with student leaders from across the university,” U of G’s “counsellors, medical doctors, student housing staff, and faculty are also key informants who bring forward information regarding the mental health needs of our students,” and that “U of G commissions a regular survey of our students so that we can assess their mental health and well-being.”
The survey Chassels is referring to is the National College Health Assessment, which is conducted every three years. It was conducted in 2013 and 2016, the results of which can be viewed on U of G’s website, and will be conducted again in 2019.
Mental health services at U of G
The Ontarion also asked how U of G’s mental health services compare to other universities.
“U of G has among the best mental health resources in Canada,” said Chassels. “UBC recently conducted a survey of universities from across Canada and on almost every indicator, there weren’t any universities in Canada that scored better than U of G.”
Chassels provided The Ontarion with an anonymized table of UBC’s findings that supports her claims, however, UBC had not made these findings public at the time of publishing.
Burnett expanded on exactly what resources are available to students at U of G by sharing a broad overview of resources within student wellness services
- Approximately 16 full-time equivalents of counsellors, which fluctuates on a needs-basis during peak periods to help manage with heightened need, with a range of backgrounds (e.g. Masters of Social Work, Clinical Counselling, etc.), but all are registered with the College of Psychotherapists. Most are familiar with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT), or both.
- Individual therapy and group therapy, which offer skill-building and support
- Student Support Network offers peer-to-peer support provided by approximately 50 students who are trained volunteers.
- Student Accessibility Services has the equivalent of 5.6 full-time advisors that work with students specifically dealing with mental health concerns and helping provide accommodations for students for academic reasons.
- A team of family physicians in the clinic; some of them strictly only see mental health patients (i.e. general practitioners who specialize in psychotherapy).
- Four psychiatrists, but the equivalent of two full-time psychiatrists. One is full-time while the other three are part-time.
- A mental health care coordinator who helps transition students who have been in hospital or are having difficulty connecting with services.
- A mental wellbeing facilitator who develops programs specific to mental health on campus.
Burnett also explained that Student Wellness Services is comprises five different units that they are working towards integrating into one unit:
- Health Services
- Counselling Services
- Student Accessibility Services
- Wellness Education Centre
- Health & Performance Centre
In light of student concerns regarding mental health services at U of G, The Ontarion asked Burnett and Chassels what U of G is currently doing to better mental health services on campus.
Burnett said, “For the last several years we have been working on integrating, so that students’ experience would be improved. They wouldn’t necessarily have to go to multiple places telling their stories multiple times. We would have a more coordinated effort, so that’s what we’ve been working towards.
“Several years ago the University approved the expansion and renovation of the Powell Building (over on the east side of campus where currently Health Services and Health and Performance Centre is there) in order to bring all of the services together under one roof. […] That’s been their focus for the last couple of years,” Burnett continued.
“We are always developing new programs and services for our students,” said Chassels. “Some future initiatives that are under development include providing after hours access to mental health supports in a central campus location. We are also exploring options to use a mobile phone app to connect students with peer mental health supports. And of course, we will continue to work with students and members of Senate to find a way to create a longer fall study break.”
On the fall study break
When asked about the obstacles preventing the extension of the fall study break, Chassels said, “I am committed to working with the registrar, student leaders, and others to explore a range of options to provide more study time for students, especially during the fall semester.”
Chassels also connected The Ontarion with Ray Darling, registrar at the University of Guelph, to learn more about what is preventing a longer fall break if University administration are for the extension.
“A proposal to expand the fall study break by one day was introduced in the 2017-2018 academic year,” said Darling. “The proposal was brought to a Joint Board of Graduate Studies/Board of Undergraduate Studies committee meeting where there was an equal number of members supporting and opposing the motion. A tie vote at these meetings is considered a defeat, so it did not go forward to Senate. Consultations with students were representative of the vote at this meeting. Half of the students were supportive and half were opposed to expansion.”
A communications problem
Both Chassels and Burnett told The Ontarion that the main issue with mental health services on campus is a communications problem.
“What we have heard loud and clear from students is that we need to do a better job of letting them know about the many mental health supports that are available to them,” said Chassels, “We definitely need to improve our communications strategy.”
“We hear this a lot and it’s something we have been working towards, is communicating our offerings as well as educating [the community about] what students can expect from our services. And that was one of the things we heard in the feedback at the meeting,” said Burnett. “It’s all well and good that we have these services, but if students don’t know about them (or what to expect) then we need to do better. A year ago we received some additional funding from the Student Wellness advisory group to hire a communications coordinator, so we have been working on developing our strategy to help enhance our communications going forward. Currently we are working on our website, it’s under development, and we’ll be re-launching that in the spring as well.”
Photos by Alora Griffiths/The Ontarion
Screenshots courtesy of Twitter