Dimension 1: Institutional Factors

Webinar: A Health Promoting Campus – What is your role?

This CICMH webinar will help leaders and administrators understand what it means to become a health promoting campus and how understanding the Okanagan Charter is a crucial step to creating a campus plan for wellbeing. An information sheet on this topic can be found here.

Webinar: Optimizing Outcomes Through Trauma-Informed Leadership

Post-traumatic growth is a concept that is relevant in a time when collective trauma and returning to “normal” are a part of conversations on post-secondary campuses. This HCA webinar provides an overview of emerging research related to post-traumatic growth to foster trauma-informed leadership in post-secondary settings. This webinar explains how stress and adversity can foster strength and resiliency, and how it can improve outcomes and satisfaction. A resource sheet on trauma-informed practice can also be found here.

Post-Secondary Student Mental Health: Guide to a Systemic Approach

This guide, created by Canadian Association of College & University Student Services (CACUSS) and Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), illustrates a framework for addressing student mental health in post-secondary institutions. The purpose of the guide is to be used as a tool to support the creation of campus communities that are deeply conducive to transformative learning and mental wellbeing through a systemic approach to student mental health in post-secondary institutions across Canada.

Student Mental Health Framework 2022-2026

The Student Mental Health Framework emerged from the need to continue the conversation of wellbeing and mental health on the Carleton University campus that started with the first Student Mental Health Framework in 2009. The scope has since expanded to include proactive and preventative strategies in building a holistic, campus-wide approach to mental health and wellbeing.

Psychologically Safe Leader Assessment

The National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace requires leaders to be competent to manage employees (in the case of institutions, faculty, and staff) in a way that is psychologically safe. This assessment will help leaders identify and strengthen competence in this area.

Thriving in the Classroom

This toolkit, developed by a diverse team of post-secondary faculty, mental health professionals, learning experts, and community partners, is designed to support post-secondary educators in promoting student wellbeing and resilience in the virtual or in-person classroom. This toolkit offers practical resources which can easily be inserted directly into your curriculum, resources to support you in designing a curriculum, utilizing pedagogical approaches that promote resilience, and in-depth research for those interested in learning more about student resilience. A webinar on this toolkit in practice can be viewed here.

Developing Leadership & Governance for Healthy Universities

This UK-based project aims to strengthen the English National Healthy Universities Network, generate, and disseminate web-based guidance tools and case studies, and support further national developments.

An Environmental Scan of Canadian Campus Mental Health Strategies

The Best Practices Network reviewed Canadian campus mental health strategies existing from 2009- 2019 to support post-secondary institutions in their institutional mental health and wellness strategy development. This environmental scan can be helpful to explore other campuses’ approaches to student mental health policies and practices.

Wellbeing Through SFU Policies & Procedures: A Guide for Action

This document provides a framework to intentionally consider how policies and procedures impact the physical, social, and mental wellbeing of students, to be used when reviewing and creating new policies and procedures. A worksheet is also available here.

Cannabis Legalization: An Opportunity for Healthier Relationships with Cannabis on Campus

This Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses resource is meant to help campuses pursue and implement a health promotion approach to cannabis. This guide encourages efforts to understand cannabis use in the campus context, build shared and personal literacy around cannabis among campus members, foster connectedness, and engagement to facilitate collaborative action, and apply judicious regulation that recognizes diversity, upholds individual autonomy, and elicits social responsibility. Campuses can thereby fulfil their educational mandate and lead the public as called for by the Okanagan Charter.

Policy Approaches to Post-Secondary Student Mental Health: A Scan of Current Practice

OCAD University and Toronto Metropolitan University have committed to working together in collaboration around the strategic development of campus wide mental health initiatives. The project has a special focus on post-secondary mental health policy development, service and system design approaches to student-centered care, and the application of design and visual thinking to campus mental health.

Health and Wellbeing Checklist for University Decision Making

Developed by the University of Sydney, this PDF checklist encompasses an evidence-informed reflective process that will assist decision-making groups in considering the impact their decisions may have on health and wellbeing.

Reducing Cannabis Harms: A Guide for Ontario Campuses

This CICMH toolkit explores issues related to cannabis use and provides readers with an overview of health approaches that can reduce the harms and risks associated with it. Any campus professional — whether faculty, academic advisor, counsellor, or student services professional — working with students who use cannabis will be able to refer to the toolkit for information. A webinar is also available here.

Harm Reduction: A Guide for Campus Communities

This Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses resource places harm reduction within a health promotion approach as a fitting application of its values and implications. This resource includes strategies explicitly relating to members’ substance use in general as well as to situations of concern around specific substances. All such efforts fall within a frame of nurturing community, promoting literacy, and attending to settings. Cited examples draw on a modest scan of what BC post-secondary institutions have done.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Toolkit

A toolkit on supporting students prepared by CICMH and the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Division.

Webinar: Equity on Campus – Creating Policies and Practices to Support Mental Health

This CICMH webinar discusses the relationship between equity and mental health, highlighting the social determinants of health that most impact mental health.

Supporting Mental Health and Wellbeing Among Students in Higher Education

The North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (NAO) conducted a scoping review of academic and grey literature to understand (1) how post-secondary institutions support mental health among students, and (2) how governments are working to improve mental health and wellbeing in post-secondary education settings.

Environmental Scan of Promising Practices and Indicators Relevant to Campus Mental Health

This 2015 scan commissioned by CICMH identifies provincial, national, and international promising practices and indicators that would be useful for post-secondary institutes to facilitate the development and evaluation of campus-based mental health programs and services. Key informant interviews were conducted with experts within and outside the post-secondary sector. The final component of the project is a framework for post-secondary institutions to gather and compile data on student mental health services.

Tools for Success: Models for Exemplary Student Mental Health Initiatives at Alberta Post-Secondary Institutions

This toolkit presents case study examples of promising practices from 11 Alberta institutions related to themes of overall institution structure, policies, processes, programming, outreach, direct care for students, and crisis management. The case studies are a resource for a variety of audiences within a post-secondary environment in the planning and implementation of effective initiatives.

Anti-Oppressive Practice Toolkit – Part One

This first part of the Anti-Oppressive Practice toolkit, prepared by CICMH, 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.

Anti-Oppressive Practice Toolkit – Part Two

The second part of CICMH’s Anti-Oppressive Practice toolkit dives deeper into colonialism and colonization, the impact this can have on students, and provides individuals with some resources that allow for critical self-reflection.

Other relevant resources mentioned earlier in the document:

Post-Secondary Student Mental Health: Guide to a Systemic Approach First Nations Mental Wellness Continuum Framework

Webinar: Health Privacy Issues on Campus

Clinical and non-clinical staff on campuses across Ontario support students while navigating and respecting their privacy daily. At times, this can lead to questions and confusion. This CICMH webinar will provide them with information on how the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA) and the Health Care Consent Act, 1996 (HCCA) apply to campuses, and how common campus scenarios play out under Ontario’s privacy and consent legislation.

Provincial laws that set rules for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal health information:

• Newfoundland and Labrador – Personal Health Information Act, 2011
• Prince Edward Island – Health Information Act, 2021
• Nova Scotia – Personal Health Information Act, 2013
• New Brunswick – Personal Health Information Privacy and Access Act, 2009
• Quebec – Act Respecting the Sharing of Certain Health Information, 2021
• Ontario – Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004
• Manitoba – The Personal Health Information Act, 2022
• Saskatchewan – Health Information Protection Act, 2003
• Alberta – Health Information Act, 2001
• British Columbia – Personal Health Information Access and Protection of Privacy Act, 2008

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action

To redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes 94 calls to action in various areas, including education, language and culture, and health.

Post-Secondary Experience of Indigenous Students Following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – Summary of Survey Findings

In July and August of 2018, Indspire sent a survey to 2000 First Nation, Inuit and Métis students enrolled in post-secondary programs across Canada. The aim was to gain insight and perspective on how the Calls to Action released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 had affected their educational experience.

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 better support 2SLGBTQ+ students.

Webinar: Two-Eyed Seeing – Supporting Indigenous Students Mental Health

Indigenous post-secondary students face multiple systemic barriers as they work towards their educational goals, including racism, intergenerational trauma, mental health issues, cultural shock and isolation, and colonial violence. Despite these barriers, they continue to demonstrate resiliency, success, and personal growth if they are supported in spaces that honour their identity as Indigenous peoples. Counsellors have an ethical obligation and are mandated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Actions to ensure that they are providing culturally safe spaces for Indigenous students. This CICMH webinar focuses on perspectives of holistic wellness infused with Indigenous knowledge to support Indigenous student mental health. An information sheet on this topic can be found here.

LGBT Youthline

This youth-led organization provides resources and support for 2SLGBTQ+ individuals across Ontario. LGBT Youthline provides a variety of resources on different topics such as sex and sexual health, government form information for name/gender/sex changes, physical and mental health, and more.

Landscape of Accessibility and Accommodation in Post-Secondary Education for Students with Disabilities

This report by the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) provides a thorough examination of the current landscape of accessibility, services, accommodations, technical equipment, and supports for students with disabilities at publicly funded post-secondary institutions across Canada.

Webinar: Supporting International Students

International students face many challenges during their transition to a new country and educational system. This CICMH webinar looks at some of the barriers to access, including stigma of mental health issues, differing cultural perceptions of the definitions, causes, and handling of mental health, and a lack of awareness of supports offered on and off campus. CICMH discusses ways to overcome these barriers while considering the cross-campus collaborations needed to enhance support for international students.

Webinar: Supporting International Students – Part 1 and 2

While positive student experience continues to be a top priority for Canadian post-secondary institutions, international students have unique needs and face many challenges as they adjust to living and learning in Canada. As such, it is vital for institutions to ensure there are meaningful, appropriate, and culturally responsive supports in place to better provide for the holistic wellbeing of their international student population. This HCA webinar focuses on some of the unique challenges international students may face while living and learning in Canada, the impact COVID-19 has had on international education and the international student experience, as well as recommendations for building more holistic and culturally responsive approaches to supporting international students.

Webinar: Engaging Student Voice to Cultivate Wellness Culture

Organizational wellness culture can support mental health and wellness in day-to-day practices and broader policies. This webinar explored HCA’s student staff strategy that cultivates a wellness culture, engages the student voice, and promotes student learning.

Complex Collaboration Toolkit

This HCA toolkit describes a framework for establishing and maintaining cross-campus or multi-institutional collaborations. The Complex Collaboration Model shows the typical stages of a collaboration and how to navigate those stages.

Webinar: Indigenizing Mental Health Care Within the Post-Secondary Setting

This CICMH webinar dives into what decolonizing and indigenizing mental health care can look like within the post-secondary context. Within this webinar, key elements of Indigenous worldview are discussed that could be incorporated into services and programs, benefitting Indigenous and non-Indigenous students alike.

Student Led Initiatives Toolkit

This HCA toolkit provides strategies for engaging with students and empowering student-led mental health initiatives. Within the toolkit, the Student Leader Guide is designed to assist student government leaders with implementing initiatives to support student mental health. Alongside, the Student Journey Map can help understand when and how to engage with student stakeholders.

Jack.org Youth Voice Report 2021-2022

Every year, Jack.org releases the Youth Voice Report. The Youth Voice Report 2021-22 reflects the voices of young people from every province and territory, sharing their experiences and perspectives on what causes mental health struggles in their communities and what prevents young people from accessing the help they need. The goal of this report is to help ensure youth experiences and thoughts are considered and included in any solutions built to address youth mental health. CICMH also has a webinar with Jack.org that discusses the 2019 Youth Voice Report, which can be viewed here.

Student Engagement Toolkit

The Student Engagement Toolkit by CICMH 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 such as the dean, as well as faculty.

Webinar: Striking a Balance: Tips and Tricks for Effective Youth Engagement

Many campuses have innovative mental health services and programs in place for their students, but sometimes struggle with student engagement. Some challenges involve building awareness of these services and ensuring that they meet evolving student needs. This CICMH webinar talks about engaging students in promotion, design, and delivery. CICMH discusses some best practices in outreach and engagement, including lessons learned from national youth capacity building programs.

Graduate Student Mental Health Toolkit

A CICMH toolkit focused on improving graduate student mental health, with recommendations for policy and program considerations. A webinar on putting the toolkit into practice can also be viewed here.

Other relevant resources mentioned earlier in the document:

• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Toolkit
• Webinar: Equity on Campus – Creating Policies and Practices to Support Mental Health
• Student Mental Health Framework 2022-2026
• Anti-Oppressive Practice Toolkit – Part One
• Anti-Oppressive Practice Toolkit – Part Two