Matt Dionne | Sports and Health Editor
Featured image: Stephanie Francis, Division of Students mental health and wellness project lead, speaks to students and faculty during last October’s launch of the Mental Health Strategy. | Courtesy of York Media
In a recent survey, 66.8 per cent of York students said they felt overwhelming anxiety within the last 12 months, 48.7 per cent felt so depressed it was difficult to function and 11.9 seriously considered suicide.
In response to the growing demand for better mental health treatment on universities across Canada, York launched The Mental Health Strategy this past October, intended to begin a conversation about mental health and attempt to remove the stigma around mental illness.
So far, the initiative has developed a communication strategy that will highlight relevant mental health services, events and information. This strategy will be heavily pushed this week in conjunction with Bell Let’s Talk Day, including physical ads across campus, as well as a heavy social media presence.
“We are working with staff and faculty groups to develop training for all groups with a focus on awareness, stigma, response and referral,” says Stephanie Francis, Division of Students mental health & wellness project lead.
“While working on new training, we also continue to offer suicide awareness and intervention training to the entire community on a regular basis, free of charge.”
They’ve also developed student roundtables, which are co-chaired by student volunteers, allowing for student voices to be heard.
“Any student can attend—undergraduate, graduate, full-time [or] part-time—and they are developed as a drop-in space so a student can attend any portion of the roundtable,” says Francis.
According to Francis, the strategy is also finalizing details that will allow them to offer an online screening and support tool in relation to students’ mental health.
The group continues to promote programs and services through strong connections with the Centre for Student Success, student clubs, college councils, Career Centre and Learning Skills workshops.
While Francis feels the strategy has made good progress since their launch, they still have several goals they’d like to accomplish within their first year, including developing a policy to ensure that academic and non-academic policies align with the university’s promise to make mental health a priority, develop anti-oppression training and its correlation to negative mental health status as well as partnering with programs and faculties to deliver suicide awareness training to students.
While the strategy aims to tackle mental health support through connecting academic and non-academic realms, it remains to be seen how effective these policies will be, especially with the vague language surrounding such a serious and growing health concern.
A page outlining the strategy’s goals and intentions for the next three years is anticipated to be uploaded to the mental health website soon.
