Wellness Together Canada and Homewood Health

This message was originally sent to employees by Marilyn Thompson, associate provost, human resources.

The entire leadership of the University recognizes the critical role you have all been playing ensuring our students and fellow employees adjust to a changing academic and work environment. We thank each one of you as we make this transition to remote operations. We know this has been a challenging time for many of you as you balance competing priorities and we want to highlight supports in place to assist you during this time.

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the Wellness Together Canada programthat will provide mental health and substance abuse support to all Canadians experiencing impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative is funded by Health Canada and provides an online portal that allows Canadians to access self-assessments, self-directed mental health tools, peer support, and live counselling by various online means.

The University of Waterloo’s Employee & Family Assistance Program provider, Homewood Health, is one of the organizations participating in this initiative. Homewood Health, in partnership with Kids Help Phone and Stepped Care Solutions, will be contributing to the federal government’s supports for mental health. Homewood Health’s role in the partnership is to provide telephone triage services as well as free telephone and video counselling sessions to people in need from all across the country, 24 hours a day.

You do not have to be eligible to receive the Employee & Family Assistance Program in order to access these mental health services. If you need help and support, or just want to talk, you can access the Wellness Together Canada service at www.wellnesstogether.ca or by calling 1-866-585-0445.

Additionally, there will be no disruption in the services that Homewood Health offers to the University of Waterloo, with the exception of in-person counselling sessions, which have been put on hold during the pandemic. For those employees eligible for the Employee & Family Assistance Program, remember that support is available on the Homeweb website or by calling 1-800-663-1142. You can find out more about the Employee & Family Assistance Program online.