I am a first generation, racialized woman attending a post-secondary institution. With these experiences, and as a student who deals with mental health issues, accessing help is incredibly difficult. Within my community, I have not had the opportunity or spaces to discuss trauma and strategies for coping because of stigma attached to conversations about mental health. On my campus, I face difficulty navigating and accessing services. In addition to long wait times, often times the counselors I have seen are unable to relate to my experiences.
I know that there are many other students facing similar barriers. As a student representative, I consistently hear, “we need more services for mental health on campus” during my interactions with students on a daily basis. I find it frustrating that on a campus with 53,000 students, and with the understanding that many students enter university with pre-existing anxiety, depression, or other forms of mental health issues, there are not adequate services.
Conversations surrounding mental health and wellness on post-secondary campuses have gained traction over the past couple of years. These conversations sparked on a provincial level after there was an increase in suicide rates at Queen’s University. A discussion paper from the university looking at the declining state of mental health on post-secondary campuses cited a number of factors from the stress of moving away from home, to academic demands, social pressures, parents’ expectations, and a looming expectation of a tough job market awaiting. However, as many post-secondary institutions have taken up the work to improve mental health and wellness, there continues to be a lack of funding for services or an honest conversation about the negative impacts that high tuition fees and underemployment are having on the mental health of students.
This year, the York Federation of Students launched our first mental health initiative – Accept. Express. Support. This campaign aims to raise awareness, provide spaces for expression, and present a community of support services focusing on mental health and wellness. To kick-off this initiative, we hosted a week-long series of events that placed an emphasis on providing anti-oppressive spaces with diverse and intersectional perspectives as they impact mental health and wellness. Providing a diversity of events was important to us, as we understand that when speaking about historical trauma there are often voids in language that can impact the ability to access services and share experiences. For example, the goal of the art therapy initiative was to provide an accessible and safe medium to start conversations around mental health and trauma. We saw how important these spaces are. An overwhelming number of students came through these events to learn about resources, share their experiences, and discuss next steps. As peers, our aim for this week was to start conversations about where we are at as a community in addressing the mental health and wellness needs of students. We know that this is only the start of a larger conversation about mental health on campus and we are excited to continue engaging in this work.
Beyond that week we have also created a hub of information for resources and support on campus and in the community including contact information, free apps, and resource downloads. It will be updated and added to throughout the year. Find it at: www.yfs.ca/mhaw
As students who have the privilege to take up space on our campuses, it is important that we hold our universities accountable. After hearing about the experiences of students throughout the week, we found that one of the ways that York can work to improve services on campus is with a mental health audit, which sees how gaps can be filled and how services can be more accessible for students. We also need to keep talking, collaborating, and supporting each other. It is time to take action and break the stigma surrounding mental illness, to reduce the barriers inherent in finding support, and to provide safer spaces to highlight the struggles and lived experiences for those who are impacted.
Chenthoori Malankov, Contributor
