Seneca College offers noise-blocking headphones \u2014 like the ones construction workers wear \u2014 to students with test anxiety while they write. It bought 15 pairs and needs more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cAnxiety Drop-ins\u201d are a hit at the Ontario College of Art and Design University to help ease mid-term stress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
At the University of Toronto, hundreds of students flock to 14 free drop-ins for \u201cmindful meditation\u201d each week to learn to battle distraction by focusing on their breathing, not their blues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A new \u201cTake Care\u201d counselling program at Ryerson lets students click on their particular problem for a link to a weekly group. Worried? Consider the Inner Peace: Zen Power Hour. Overwhelmed? How about the Stress Management Lab? Do you \u201cfeel like you\u2019re going nowhere?\u201d They\u2019ll talk about that in the Take Care of Your Thoughts: Shift Your Thinking group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
And never mind the \u201ctherapy dogs\u201d so popular on most campuses to ease exam nerves; U of T\u2019s New College brings live kangaroos, owls and even a python, which some, apparently, find calming to touch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Amid growing concerns about soaring anxiety and stress on campus<\/a>, never have colleges and universities done so much to tend the student soul.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n RELATED:<\/strong>Accommodations a game changer for student struggling with mental illness<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Stressed out students turn to mindful meditation<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Ivory Tower is becoming a kinder, gentler, more emotionally nurturing institution because colleges and universities now see student mental health<\/a> as part of their job. These long-standing citadels of the cerebral say they now recognize the mind can\u2019t learn if the heart is troubled \u2014 and they have picked up the challenge. Many institutions have adopted sweeping mental health strategies that go beyond the suicide awareness<\/a>programs hailed as critical in recent years, to bring emotional coaching designed to keep students from spiraling into crisis in the first place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI could ask cheekily, if educational institutions don\u2019t help people to develop the kind of strong life skills necessary to achieve their full capacity, who will?\u201d asked Provost Mayo Moran of U of T\u2019s Trinity College, which has just hired its own \u201cembedded counsellor\u201d so Trinity students don\u2019t need to traipse across campus to counselling headquarters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n U of T has embedded 15 counsellors at colleges and faculties such as law, business, dentistry, engineering and commerce.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIf we tell students when we recruit them that this is your home away from home, you\u2019re coming here to be transformed in a holistic way and become a better person, then our responsibilities have to go beyond more than just academic or we\u2019re talking out of both sides of our mouth,\u201d said Kelley Castle, dean of students at U of T\u2019s Victoria College.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to figure out what our duty of care is, so we help without going too far.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Some suggest emotional coaching should enter the curriculum itself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIf we teach students how to write papers and grant applications, we should teach them how to concentrate through meditation,\u201d said Richard Foty, a PhD student in U of T\u2019s Institute of Medical Science. He takes a weekly meditation class with psychology professor Brenda Toner, who includes meditation sessions in her fourth-year course on mindfulness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe call them soft skills,\u201d said Foty, \u201cbut they\u2019re the core of being a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Why are students so stressed? Campus officials say many are distraught at their job prospects, unequipped to stick-handle life without their parents\u2019 help and caught in a social-media pressure cooker from which they dare not unplug.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Some students are stressed because they need academic help, noted Terry McQuaid, Seneca\u2019s director of counselling and accessibility services. \u201cThey\u2019ve grown up in the all-students-must-pass philosophy, so some of their skills in math and literacy aren\u2019t what they should be,\u201d she said, \u201cand now they have to demonstrate the skills so it leads to high anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Add financial woes; the average York University student has to work 20 hours a week and commutes 90 minutes a day, said Janet Morrison, vice-provost of students, \u201cso money is a number one driver of student anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The number of students with clinical disorders is rising each year, and U of T sees \u201c10 to 15 per cent more students a year requiring assistance with the emotional experience of stress, of being worried,\u201d said Janine Robb, U of T\u2019s executive director of health and wellness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMany are having emotional experiences they aren\u2019t used to feeling, partly because we don\u2019t allow young people to feel sad or uncomfortable; we make it all good for them. Then they get to university and Mom and Dad aren\u2019t around.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Students also sometimes think they have a clinical problem when they really just need tips on how to calm down and work out their problems. \u201cThey talk about having an anxiety disorder, but if we can dial that language back, it\u2019s sometimes just nervousness or worry or they\u2019re stressed out,\u201d said Robb.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMental health is the banner issue of our generation,\u201d said fourth-year U of T student and Rhodes Scholar Kaleem Hawa of Trinity College, where students voted to pay an extra $5 each per year toward the cost of the embedded counsellor. A recent $1.5 million donation made it possible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cStress is being exacerbated by the fierce competition for university and jobs, but technology has had an effect too,\u201d said Hawa, 21. \u201cWe need a replacement for being on the computer because we\u2019re making more friends, but they\u2019re shallower. And we\u2019re more isolated than we\u2019ve ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But in many ways, student stress is a reflection of a larger, distracted, over-stimulated society, says Victoria College\u2019s Kelley Castle, \u201cso we\u2019re trying to calm the culture and create a place where people talk face-to-face, a climate of conversation,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s like emotional CPR.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That\u2019s why George Brown College student mentor Gemeda Beker plugs in his kettle in the hall by the library three times a week to offer frantic students \u201cTea with G\u201d \u2014 with a dash of advice, a sympathetic ear and a spoonful of human connection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amid concerns about rising anxiety and stress on campus, never have colleges and universities done so much to tend the student soul. By: Louise Brown GTA, Published on Sat Jan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"topic":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n