Recommendations

The results of the campus consultation and sources of professional literature were used in deriving conclusions and interpretations leading to the project’s recommendations, from which a number of key strategies should emerge related to the following: organizing mental health services to work together smoothly; enhancing efficient access to services for students; recognizing the diversity of the student body in facilitating access to mental health services; considering the needs of students with mental health concerns in the Office for Persons with Disabilities (OPD) context; promoting staff development and education for best practices; providing resources to address staff wellness and care for the caregiver; and encouraging proactive approaches to mental wellness, including prevention and health promotion.

For the full list of recommendations, see the 2012 Report of the University of Waterloo Student Mental Health Project (PDF).

Select recommendations include:

  • A group designated by the Associate Provost (AP), Students will meet as soon as possible to determine steps in developing an implementation plan with specific goals, objectives and timelines for the recommendations in this report. While there is some urgency associated with, for instance, implementing organizational and congruent procedural changes, many of the following recommendations require some study. The University should consider using all available resources (e.g., academic departmental and faculty-based resources, the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Mental Health Research, appropriate graduate programs at Wilfrid Laurier and University of Waterloo) to study in depth some of the questions that our review raises.
  • A new position should be created - Director, Campus Wellness - that reports to the AP, Students and oversees all aspects of student wellness through the following direct reports:
    • Director, Counselling and Psychological Services
    • Director, Health Services
    • Director, Wellness Education and Programs
    • Director, Wellness Administration
  • The Office of Persons with Disabilities Department will evolve to an Accessibility and Accommodations Office.
  • The Accessibility and Accommodations Office should be shifted to the Office of Student Success, with the head of this area reporting to Director, Student Success.
  • The AP, Students will initiate a review of all wellness related committees and determine an overarching committee structure that promotes campus-wide engagement in supporting mental health of students
  • The Director, Campus Wellness will develop a public health approach to address mental health on campus, with the goal of establishing a community that is designed to prevent mental health problems and suicide and to promote mental health for all members of the University population (students, staff, and faculty)
  • The Director, Campus Wellness will assess/evaluate student needs, opinions and satisfaction with respect to mental health related services by identifying and creating a cross-functional working group to guide this work. The group will:
    • review all current methods and instruments
    • make recommendations regarding the coordination and management of these student assessment functions
    • consider recommending the ongoing and/or periodic use at the University of Waterloo of appropriate standardized instruments with a focus on health, student mental health, and wellness (e.g., the American College Health Association - National College Health Assessment Survey)
  • The Director, Campus Wellness will ensure the existence of interventions (i.e. policies, practices, services) concerned with mental health promotion, the prevention of mental health problems and illnesses, treatment, and maintenance/accommodation
  • The Director, Campus Wellness will oversee the development of processes to identify risk and protective factors on individual, interpersonal, institutional, and community/societal levels associated with mental health, suicide, and mental health problems/disorders on campus
  • The student survey conducted as part of this review will be reviewed by the Director, Campus Wellness and the working group. The results of the student survey will be used to inform campus mental health programs and services and health promotion programs. For example, specific consideration will be given to the finding in the study that a significant number of students experience anxiety associated with academics (e.g., test and performance anxiety), have unhealthy sleep behaviours that interfere with academic success, or have concerns associated with overuse of internet or computer games.
  • Utilizing the inventory assembled by the Project Team, the AP, Students will initiate a review of all academic support programs currently offered by Health Services, Counselling Services and OPD in an effort to determine:
    • what programs should be continued
    • what, if any, programs should be altered
    • what, if any, programs should be discontinued
    • who should be responsible for program delivery
    • what, if any, additional resources are required to effectively deliver programs
  • The Director, Campus Wellness will initiate a review of existing practices related to campus emergency response and recommend changes, if required
  • The Director, Campus Wellness will establish a working stakeholder group tasked with determining the special concerns related to mental health and mental health services of international students. It is recommended that the group have latitude to determine its scope of work, but will necessarily include examination of the stigma around mental health. The group should consider the following as it determines its mandate: The possibilities for study and research in this area could include inviting participation of the University of Waterloo Centre for Mental Health Research and other appropriate researchers (e.g., Wilfrid Laurier’s Community Psychology Ph.D. Program) to conduct community-based action research initiatives at the University of Waterloo campus. These initiatives would focus on the cultural underpinnings of the stigma associated with reaching out for mental health support. Students could help identify the extant social support in their various communities and could provide advice for preventing suicide, for example.
  • The Director of Counselling and Psychological Services, in collaboration with the Director of Health Services, will develop and implement comprehensive University of Waterloo-based substance abuse programs and services. This could be accomplished through the mechanism of a task force similar in scope and process to this review
  • With the goal of increasing student access to services and recognizing that significant numbers of students may lack adequate awareness of campus services the Director, Campus Wellness will undertake a review to determine best practices of marketing and communicating programs/services and supports to the University of Waterloo community. This review will include consideration of the following:
    • web-based resources
    • social media
    • a public health approach to wellness and the mental health of students, staff and faculty
    • consideration of integrating into service provision web-based tools for self-assessment
  • The Director, Campus Wellness will review the relationship that the campus mental health service system has with faculty and administration. This review will include assessing and making recommendations related to:
    • education of faculty and administration related to student mental health concerns
    • feasible ways of engaging faculty and administration in ongoing exploration of the ways in which the campus community can be an asset in protecting students from mental health crises
    • feasible ways in which this important partnership can be sustained in the interest of the welfare and success of University of Waterloo students