From the Provost’s Desk (December 2024)

A photo of Provost Trevor Young sitting at his desk wearing a navy blue jacket and light blue shirt

Our Commitment to Student Mental Health

As faculty members, one of the hardest things we encounter is seeing our students struggle with mental health issues and not knowing how to help them. I wanted to take this issue of the newsletter as an opportunity to give you an update on what we’ve been doing with respect to student mental health – the improvements we’re making, along with some practical advice and resources about what to do and who you can refer your students to when they need support. As a reference point, I start with the Presidential and Provostial Task Force on Student Mental Health, which I chaired in 2019. We have made significant improvements since then but still have more work to do.

For instance, since we adopted a Stepped Care model for mental health services across our campuses, students can now access same or next-day counselling and we have virtually eliminated wait lists for appointments. At the same time, we are able to see more students for counselling and personalized treatment plans in our Health and Wellness Centres on all three campuses. I know that some students assume that there will be a long wait to talk to our counsellors, but you can reassure them that that isn’t the case.

Moreover, a recent student survey confirmed a high level of satisfaction with our redesigned services, which speaks to the excellent quality of care we are providing. Accessing support in a timely manner is critically important when these issues arise, so please encourage students in need to reach out for help (I’ve included links to services and mental health resources at the end of this message).

As I’ve mentioned previously, one of my priorities is to make sure that we attend to our students’ mental wellbeing from day one through to graduation. In addition to counselling and care, there are three other areas in which I think we as faculty members can make important contributions:

  • Accessibility
  • Research
  • Prevention

Accessibility

As many of you know, and have maybe experienced in your own classes, the number of students seeking accommodations for mental health concerns has risen significantly across Ontario universities. According to our internal data, the number of students at U of T with diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has gone up 107% since 2016. In addition, numbers are also rising for students with other common mental health conditions.

Such a marked increase has put significant pressure on our Accessibility Services advisors to appropriately accommodate these students, in addition to all the excellent services they are already providing for students with other accessibility concerns. Understanding that our goal is to create an inclusive and accessible learning environment for our students, we’re working to streamline our services and create classroom environments that enhance the success of all students while lowering common barriers to success for students with disabilities.

To that end, we’re improving consistency in assessment and diagnosis of common mental disorders including ADHD, implementing annual training for health and wellness centre providers, and providing better transition supports for students when they first join us from high school. We are partnered with CAMH and plan to have this service operational before next September.

At the individual level, I also encourage faculty to consider adopting the principles of Universal Design for Learning in their classes, which will increase accessibility for students with a wide range of learning needs. Resources on this are available through the teaching and learning centres on each of our campuses – links to these are also in the resources section below.

Research

U of T is in an excellent position to advance research on youth mental health. The Inlight Student Mental Health research initiative, led by newly named Rossy Chair in Campus Mental Health, Dr. Kristin Cleverley, is an innovative, collaborative partnership with our Student Mental Health teams. Inlight’s research provides evidence-based guidance for our teams, which in turn gives Inlight a chance to measure the impact of these research-informed interventions.

This collaboration is unique and allows for action-oriented research that leads to tangible results for our students along with important findings for researchers. I am particularly excited that it embraces a co-creation approach that incorporates students and their experiences into research design, ensuring that they – as end users and subjects – have a central voice in the process. I encourage you to learn more about Inlight’s research funding programs and its annual research symposium, which will be held on February 27, 2025.

As you may know, one of my priorities is to increase the opportunities for research trainees. This is also true for student mental health. We have outstanding scholars in our health sciences faculties and beyond and my goal is to harness those resources to make a substantive contribution to moving the field forward. You’ll be hearing more in coming months about our efforts to offer opportunities to our research students and trainees across the health professions to get involved.

Prevention

CAMH reports that youth aged 15 to 24 are more likely to experience mental illness and/or substance use disorders than any other age group. This means that our students are especially vulnerable to struggling with mental health issues.

As I’m sure you’ve witnessed, either through your students or through young people in your own lives, transitioning into university studies and the independence that comes with that shift can be stressful. To help make this successful, we should focus on strategies that help prevent deterioration in student wellbeing as soon as they come to our campuses. Bringing on Christina Bartha as Senior Executive Director, Student Mental Health Systems, Policy, and Strategy has enabled us to think holistically about the services we are providing to students, including the many health and wellness initiatives across our UTSC, UTM, and St. George campuses, as well as student life programs. We have many dedicated staff and clinicians and we hope to maximize their collaboration and learning from one another.

One example I’d like to highlight is an innovative program at UTSC designed to strengthen student social health with the help of psychology professor Steve Joordens.

Using elements of its Introduction to Psychology class, UTSC is expanding initiatives that centre on social health as a foundation for both mental and physical health, with the end goal of protecting against stress. In this program, students will be introduced to Indigenous perspectives on connectedness and use TalkLab, a tool developed by Professor Joordens and colleagues, to help enhance the skills they need to overcome barriers to forming social contacts. UTSC leadership will evaluate the impact of the program on the cohesion and resilience of the UTSC student community, contributing to our ongoing research and understanding of the student mental health journey.  This may offer opportunities for expansion across all three campuses.

I want to hear more about any other existing or planned initiatives, so please let me know about them by using the comments form below.

We all have a role to play in supporting our students’ mental health and wellbeing and need to approach the task from many different angles. At the university level, we continue to develop and refine our tools, skills, and programming in the areas of prevention, research, and accessibility. I invite you to join us in our aspirations to build educational environments where our students can learn to thrive in all areas of their lives.

Best regards,
Trevor

Mental health-related resources and links for students and faculty

General resources
Health and wellness centres
Accessibility Services
Universal Design
Research
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