Current Landscape

Goal and Summary of This Resource

Over the past several years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of mental health-related crises that are occurring on post-secondary campuses across Ontario. Sixteen percent of post-secondary students in Canada have seriously considered suicide and almost 3% have made an attempt (ACHA-NCHA, 2019). Additionally, approximately 60.5% of the crisis calls handled by schools required the involvement of community support (Porter, 2018). In the wake of increasing mental health crises, stretched community resources and an overall trend in North America to explore service models that reevaluate the role of campus police officers/security in mental health crisis response, post-secondary institutions have had to determine how they can better meet students’ mental health needs. Many schools are implementing broader mental health frameworks which incorporate crisis supports. This toolkit has been created to support campuses in moving from siloed, department-specific approaches to crisis response to a collaborative, whole-campus approach as they work towards the broader goal of a whole-campus mental health framework.

The creation of this resource would not have been possible without the working groups that we have consulted. These groups, composed of students, campus staff and community mental health workers, helped to shine a light on the major questions and concerns with regards to this topic. The working groups were purposefully composed of people in various campus roles to ensure that a whole campus approach was taken to create this resources. Without these working groups, this toolkit as it stands would not have been realized. We are grateful for all who took the time to be involved in this process. We also want to acknowledge all of the work that community mental health organizations are doing when it comes to crisis response programs and services. There is a substantial amount to be learned from how crisis response operates in the community.