With the recent passing of Bill 166, the Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act, 2024, all Ontario post-secondary institutions must now ensure that robust policies are in place that relate to mental health and wellness supports and services for post-secondary students.
The CACUSS (Canadian Association of College and University Student Services) framework provides users with fundamental components to inform campus strategy development for addressing student mental health in post-secondary institutions. Whether you are revising your campus’s mental health strategy, or developing one from scratch, this document aims to provide you with a few key resources to help you navigate building a mental health strategy as per the CACUSS framework.
Institutional Structure: Organization, Planning, and Policy
It is widely accepted that the broader organizational context has an impact on the wellness of those within it. Institutional structure and policies contribute to its culture by reinforcing certain values, beliefs, and behaviors; and discouraging others. How a post-secondary institution is structured and its strategic goals, policies, and practices, therefore, impact student mental health, which in turn, impacts student learning. Addressing this area requires assessment of the degree to which these organizational elements support student mental health and engage the whole student in the learning process.1
Evaluation Toolkit
This toolkit delves into how to effectively evaluate the impacts of mental health and addictions services and initiatives on campus.
Post-Secondary National Standard Toolkit
This toolkit provides you and your post-secondary institution with information to build an understanding of the different components of the National Standard of Canada for Mental Health and Well-being for Post-Secondary Students (the Standard), released by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) and the Canadian Standard Association (CSA) Group, to support both your thinking about and implementation of the Standard within your campus community.
Anti-Oppressive Practice Part 1 & Part 2 Toolkits
The Anti-Oppressive Practice toolkit aims to help those who support students on campus better understand what anti-oppressive practice is, how it intersects with mental health, and why it is important to embed anti-oppressive practices into our work on campus.
Webinar: Developing a Campus Mental Health Strategy
In this webinar, Dr. Andrew Szeto and Dr. Jennifer Thannhauser discuss their journey with the renewal and evaluation of the mental health strategy at the University of Calgary. They highlight themes that emerged from this journey and the research surrounding them. These themes include upstream strategies for student mental health, post-secondary resilience, academic culture, and community support. You can also view an archived webinar featuring Dr. Andrew Szeto about creating a roadmap to develop a campus mental health strategy here.
Post-Secondary Student Mental Health Strategies in Ontario Infosheet
This document provides some examples of mental health strategies within various post-secondary institutions in Ontario. This document also provides relevant recommendations put forward by some campuses on creating mental health policy and strategy. This is not an exhaustive list as some of the documents cannot be accessed online.
Resource Infosheet for Implementing the Standard
This infosheet provides nationally available resources that can support the implementation of the Standard on Canadian post-secondary campuses. The resources are organized according to the mental health and wellbeing framework available in the Standard.
Other relevant resources mentioned in the document:
- Mental Health and the Learning Environment Toolkit
- Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Toolkit
- Student Engagement Toolkit
- Taking a Whole-Campus Approach
- Mental Health Crisis Response on Campus Toolkit
Having an Inclusive Campus Environment
A supportive campus climate and environment supports student engagement which has been found to have a positive impact on both academic performance and mental health (Center for the Study of Collegiate Mental Health, 2010). By creating conditions for meaningful participation in the campus community including the fluid and authentic exchange of ideas, such an environment helps students feel connected and facilitates holistic, integrated learning and development. The capacity to adapt to change, embrace challenges, and maintain resilience are all outcomes of such development. Other outcomes include evolving clarification of interests, values, academic goals, and one’s sense of life purpose in relation to the world. Such an environment is fundamentally committed to social justice and sustainability and identifies, addresses, and remedies barriers to full participation of all students.1
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Toolkit
This toolkit aims to take a meaningful approach in offering guidance on how to support students from all walks of life, whether in need of mental health and addictions supports or not, and the suggestions provided are meant to enhance campus experiences for students in the long term. You can view the accompanying webinar here.
Indigenous Post-Secondary Mental Health Needs Assessment Infosheet
This infosheet identifies existing gaps in supporting Indigenous post-secondary student mental health and wellbeing across Ontario to better understand how to improve mental health services for Indigenous students from both a staff and student CICMH also hosted a webinar on the Just Get Over it Exercise, which is an experiential learning opportunity that allows participants to learn and understand the timeline of colonialism in Canada and its effects on Indigenous peoples across the country.
Student Engagement Toolkit
This toolkit aims to provide an understanding of what student engagement means within different campus contexts, key practices to increase student engagement and spotlights on initiatives that are currently successful. The content within this toolkit may be relevant for post-secondary staff within various departments such as career services, student wellness, learning services, higher level academic administrators, and faculty.
Accessibility and Accommodations Toolkit
This toolkit is a guide for everyone in the campus community outside of accessibility services to learn how best to support post-secondary students with disabilities. This includes faculty, administrative staff, student leaders, student services, counselling services, and health services, among others. The aim of the toolkit is to provide the campus community with a fulsome understanding of disability, accommodations, and accessibility, to provide support and referrals to students when necessary and design programming in the most accessible way possible.
Webinar: Black Student Mental Health Matters – Afrocentric Frameworks to Restore Black Wholeness
In this CICMH webinar, Naiima Farah, a Faculty Counsellor from George Brown College, discusses Black Student mental health. Naiima talks about the contributing factors to mental health challenges among African, Black and Caribbean (ABC) students, including the effects of colonial/imperial violence and the current approaches that revolve around an anti-Black and deficit model. In this webinar, participants gain insight into the importance of Centering Afrocentric frameworks to promote Black wholeness, healing, well-being, and thriving.
Invisible Intersections: A Toolkit on Supporting 2SLGBTQ+ Students on Campus
Queer identity is not something inherently visible, though through personal style, community markers, and active acts of visibility they are able to highlight and make public our positionality. This toolkit addresses the ways in which students may be faced with challenges and barriers on campus due to their queer identity, how those challenges may be invisible to those in positions of support and provides recommendations to address those barriers. You can listen to the accompanying podcast here.
Other relevant resources mentioned in the document:
- Anti-Oppressive Practice Part 1 & Part 2 Toolkits
- Trauma-Informed Practice & Care Toolkit
- Mental Health and the Learning Environment Toolkit
- Taking a Whole-Campus Approach
Mental Health Awareness
Mental health awareness initiatives strive to improve student mental wellbeing by increasing knowledge and understanding of the determinants, nature, impact, prevention, and management of mental health issues. Increased knowledge and understanding builds resilience and capacity to maintain wellbeing. For example, resilience factors such as awareness of signs of stress, knowledge of coping strategies and belief in ability to cope have been found to be associated with decreased symptoms of depression in university students (Sawatsky et al., 2010). Increased mental health awareness also plays an important role in the de-stigmatization of mental health issues. Stigma, prejudice, and discrimination significantly impact mental health by impacting one’s sense of self-worth and commitment to self-care and making it harder to reach out for help. In addition, a supportive campus environment requires that all community members recognize their responsibility to others as well as themselves. Raising mental health awareness helps encourage community members’ commitment to promote student mental health at the campus level and to care for themselves and others.1
More Feet on the Ground
This free online course is intended to be a one-stop shop for any campus professional or student leader looking to learn how to recognize, respond, and refer students experiencing mental health issues on campus.
Trauma-Informed Practice & Care Toolkit
The purpose of this toolkit is to give those working and/or studying within the post-secondary space the context, knowledge, and skills to begin reflecting on and implementing trauma-informed practice & care into their work. This toolkit does not hope to create experts in this diverse range of practices, but to offer readers a space to consider how trauma not only impacts those they interact with, but also themselves.
CICMH Courses
These short self-paced modules aim to support the mental health and wellbeing of post-secondary students and raise awareness around common mental health topics seen on campus. These courses are geared towards students, but everyone is welcome to take them.
Webinar: Speaking Your Language – Promoting Mental Health Awareness and Support for International and Students New to Canada
In this webinar, CICMH are joined by Abu Arif and Pratishtha Kohli to discuss how to recognize the language used by international students to talk about mental health, the key challenges that international students face, and opportunities and challenges in culturally- or linguistically specific, or counselling-centered approaches.
Other relevant resources mentioned in the document:
- Anti-Oppressive Practice Part 1 & Part 2 Toolkits
- Invisible Intersections: A Toolkit on Supporting 2SLGBTQ+ Students on Campus
Community Capacity to Respond to Early Indicators of Student Concern
All students experience difficulties from time to time in their academic programs. While many students can address these concerns as they emerge, others continue struggling. National College Health Assessment (NCHA) data indicates a gap between the number of students reporting mental health concerns and those who report having received mental health support. The longer these concerns persist, the more they impact student learning and mental health. Also, as their issues persist, students expend increasing amounts of time and energy trying to cope. It is important therefore to build campus community capacity to support students earlier before their concerns become more serious. Those who interact with students on campus are in the best position to notice early indications of concern. Therefore, early recognition requires everyone’s participation. Building this capacity involves increasing student, staff, and faculty ability to recognize early indications that a student may be experiencing difficulty as well as indicators of more serious student distress. It also involves building campus community members’ capacity to reach out to a student and help connect them to appropriate resources and supports.1
Mental Health and the Learning Environment Toolkit
This toolkit provides insight on how faculty and staff can take steps within the classroom in a collective effort to support student mental health and recognize when a student may need support.
Models and Frameworks
These promising models and frameworks provide tools to help campuses identify which models or components of models will best meet their campus’ unique needs. Given the differences between campuses, no single model or framework will work well for all post-secondary institutions.
Tools and Resources
These tools and resources aim to help you improve your campus-community connections for student mental health.
Stepped Care Toolkit
The toolkit provides an overview of the various steps for implementation of Stepped Care and how it can help with increasing demands for support. It also includes a review of challenges that organizations may experience during the implementation of Stepped Care and tips for a smoother transition.
Other relevant resources mentioned in the document:
- Mental Health Crisis Response on Campus Toolkit
- Taking a Whole-Campus Approach
- More Feet on the Ground
- Campus- Community Partnerships Toolkit
- Referral and Documentation Resources and Tools
Self-Management Competencies and Coping Skills
The post-secondary student experience involves all aspects of living and learning both in and outside the classroom. Students are challenged across multiple developmental domains as they strive to build relationships, live more independently, understand themselves and clarify future directions, all the while managing their academic demands. Self-management competences and coping skills strengthen students’ resilience and ability to manage the multiple demands of student life. They also decrease vulnerability to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.1
Thriving in the Classroom
This toolkit shares the latest research, as well as skills and resources to empower you to promote personal, academic, community and career resilience in your students and yourself.
Student Orientation Package
This digital mental health resource toolkit includes a brief overview of free mental health resources available. These materials can be used to complement campuses’ orientation packages to support self-management and coping skills.
Peer Support Program
The Campus Peer Support Project was a three-year pilot project at CMHA National that offered specialized peer support training and certification, providing post-secondary students with the tools they need to support each other’s wellbeing. To ensure Ontario post-secondary institutions have access to this information, CICMH is now housing these resources. These materials provide campuses with two options to deliver the peer support training along with facilitator’s guides, handouts, and standard slides. CICMH’s peer support toolkit can be found here.
Other relevant resources mentioned in the document:
Accessible Mental Health Services
Mental health services are a critical part of a systemic approach to supporting student mental health. Numerous studies have found that they have a positive impact on student retention (Frank & Kirk, 1975; Illovsky, 1997; Porter, 2011; Turner & Berry, 2000; Wilson, et al 1997). They are uniquely placed to contribute to a systemic approach on multiple levels. They provide a range of services to support students through mental health difficulties and the recovery process, as well as specialized programs to meet the needs of specific student populations. Mental health services provide direct support to faculties through consultation regarding specific student concerns and issues arising from unique demands of the academic program. Mental health care professionals also serve institutional goals and objectives by contributing their expertise and experience with the student population to strategic planning processes focused on learning and well-being.1
Taking a Whole-Campus Approach
The whole-campus approach involves all members of the campus community involved in supporting student mental health. Ideally, practices that promote mental health are woven into all aspects of campus, from policies and programs/services to the learning environment. For additional information on taking a whole campus approach, take a look at the Okanagan Charter and CICMH’s accompanying webinar.
Campus- Community Partnerships Toolkit
This toolkit provides campuses and community agencies with a step-by-step process for developing effective partnerships that support student mental health and wellbeing Infosheets on how to build intentional partnerships and avoiding growing pains in new partnerships can be found here and here.
Referral and Documentation Resources and Tools
These provide information and tools that will help you identify and refer students with complex needs to appropriate services both on-campus and off-campus to successfully support their learning, mental health, and well-being. Sample forms and guidelines when working with on- and off-campus services are also available to help provide a coordinated circle of care for the student.
Other relevant resources mentioned in the document:
- Accessibility and Accommodations Toolkit
- Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Toolkit
- Trauma-Informed Practice & Care Toolkit
- Campus Peer Support Toolkit
- Post-Secondary National Standard Toolkit
Crisis Management
Crises such as acute distress and imminent risk of harm to self have a significant impact on students’ mental health and academic success. They also have an impact on others and can affect the entire campus community. Crises are also often complicated situations that require multiple roles and perspectives and a well-coordinated response. Crisis management protocols are critical, therefore, to enable the campus community to respond effectively to crisis situations which often involve acute distress or imminent risk of self-harm. Such situations require an elevated response level to ensure the safety of all involved. It is essential that all staff and faculty understand their role within the institution’s crisis management protocols and what is expected of them.1
Mental Health Crisis Response on Campus Toolkit
This toolkit is designed to support faculty, staff, and administrations on campus in moving from a siloed-departmental approach to mental health crisis response, to a whole-campus approach where everyone plays a part.
Recognizing, Responding, and Referring Students to Crisis Supports
This template is meant to help your institution develop a mental health crisis response algorithm.
Other relevant resources mentioned in the document:
- Referral and Documentation Resources and Tools
- Webinar: Developing a Campus Mental Health Strategy
- Post-Secondary National Standard Toolkit
- Trauma-Informed Practice & Care Toolkit
