Thursday, August 27, 2020

Waterloo takes part in #TakeThatStep mental health campaign

The University of Waterloo’s Employee & Family Assistance Program provider Homewood Health has launched a free program to promote mental health through Wellness Together, a partnership with the Government of Canada. The goal of the program is to offer emotional and mental support to all Canadians in difficult times. As part of this initiative, a new campaign is launching with the message that mental health is a journey.

The #TakeThatStep campaign is reminding all Canadians that we can all take steps every day to improve mental well-being, especially during trying times, and there’s free support available, 24/7. Wellness Together Canada is Canada’s first and only online platform offering immediate mental health and substance use support for all ages, in every province and territory, and in both official languages.

Wellness Together Canada offers a “stepped care” approach where Canadians can be instantly connected to virtual mental health services, from a mental health self-assessment, to extensive support and resources, to live phone, video or text counselling with a mental health professional or crisis responder, all at no cost to them.

The model is supported by Kids Help Phone, Canada’s leading e-mental health solution for youth, and Homewood Health, one of Canada’s leading providers of mental health and addiction treatment services and employee assistance programs; both of whom bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in providing virtual mental health services.

As part of the #TakeThatStep initiative, and in keeping with the stepped care approach, Wellness Together Canada has partnered with Canadian multidisciplinary artist Jacquie Comrie to create shoes as a piece of art. The bright and colourful shoes represent the deeply personal action of taking steps towards understanding your own mental health, getting help when needed and continuing to check in on yourself each day to promote mental wellness.

As an employee, you do not have to be eligible to receive the Employee & Family Assistance Program to access these free mental health services through this program. Everyone at Waterloo is invited to #TakeThatStep.

Employees are being invited to:

• Fill out the provided pledge card to share why you are taking a step for mental health. For example: I’m going to #TakeThatStep for MY COMMUNITY / MY WELLBEING /MY FAMILY / OTHERS TO KNOW THEY ARE NOT ALONE, etc.
• Post a photo holding the pledge card on social media channels with the call-to-action to go to the Wellness Together Canada Portal to let others know there is support available during these trying times
• This program is for all Canadians in need of support, so please share with friends and family you think may benefit from this information
• Share and promote this program using the #TakeThatStep social media resources
• Include the hashtag: #TakeThatStep

If you need help and support that is available 24/7, or just want to talk, you can access the Wellness Together Canada service at www.wellnesstogether.ca or by calling 1-866-585-0445. For more information, visit the #TakeThatStep page on the Associate Provost, Human Resources website.

Reach out to Keep Learning for Fall Remote Teaching

Are you preparing to teach remotely? Do you have questions or need support with teaching strategies, course design, or technology set-up? Or maybe you just want to bounce ideas off someone? With the start of term rapidly approaching, the Keep Learning team is here to help.

No need to search for a specific contact: an email to remoteteaching@uwaterloo.ca will connect you with real people with the right expertise from CTE, CEL, IST-ITMS or the Library to address your needs. Someone will respond within 24 hours (Monday to Friday), whether it’s just a quick question or a more substantial consultation about your preparations for fall. Our team is available now – and throughout the whole term – to assist. And the Keep Learning website is available 24/7 with new resources based on recent instructor and student survey results. We look forward to working with you.

The talk of the graduate town hall

More than 200 graduate students logged on to a special graduate student town hall on Wednesday.

President Feridun Hamdullahpur and senior University leaders hosted the online graduate event on Microsoft Teams. The event featured a presentation from the President that outlined Waterloo was preparing for the Fall 2020 term and beyond, how building access and laboratories were affected, support available for international graduate students, and services offered to graduate students, including counselling.

Following the President's presentation was a Q&A session moderated by Vice-President, University Relations Sandra Banks. Questions had been submitted in advance during the event registration process, and the livestream chat window was soon full of additional questions asked by attendees.

Questions included when graduate students would be able to return to their offices, the possibility of graduate student unionization, whether the number of graduate student spaces would change as a result of COVID-19, the paperwork needed for international graduate students to return to campus, the availability of research and study spaces on campus, how the University was responding to the needs of BIPOC community members, improving communications to graduate students, co-op opportunities and more.

Joining President Hamdullahpur in answering questions were Vice-President, Research and International Charmaine Dean, Associate Vice-President, Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs Jeff Casello, Director of Safety Kate Windsor, and Associate Provost, Co-operative and Experiential Education Norah McRae.

President Hamdullahpur closed the event with remarks about resilience and perseverance. "We are showing that whatever the world is going to throw at us, we can go through this if we are side-by-side, shoulder-by-shoulder," he said.

Videos of this week's undergraduate and graduate student town halls will be posted on the President's Town Hall website shortly, along with detailed Q&A transcripts of the questions asked at the town halls.