Concurrent Sessions

CAPSA is a national organization dedicated to reducing stigma by promoting system-level changes. Our Principle of Substance Use Health has garnered national and international recognition through initial dialogue, prompting several organizations, including our long-term allied-partner Carleton University, to adopt it as a commitment to dismantling systemic barriers related to stigma and substance use. This approach has been incorporated into Carleton’s Student Mental Health Framework for 2022-2026, with strategic initiatives implemented to address systemic barriers on campus. This partnership has committed to reviewing current programs, policies, and services that impact individuals who use substances. Through education, engagement, and support service models, the partnership has made significant strides towards applying an inclusive health-equity lens, thereby improving the health and wellness of students and staff on campus, and laying the groundwork for future opportunities.

The University of Waterloo Campus Wellness and AccessAbility Services has created a collaborative approach to supporting students who are returning to campus after a hospital encounter for mental health supports: Back to Campus Support Process. This often involves coordination of supports with counselling, access to medical follow-up, case management, referrals to off-campus resources, accommodation planning, immigration services, and academic advising. We will be looking at the recovery-based journey a student has from hospital returning to engagement in their academic plan and wellness goals. The goal is a smooth transition that incorporates health and well-being while addressing academic needs with a trauma-informed and EDI lens.

In 2022, the Indigenous Institutes Consortium (IIC) initiated a community-based research project on culturally grounded post-secondary learner wellness. Working with seven of Ontario’s nine Indigenous Institutes (IIs), the project team engaged with current learners, alumni, staff, and subject matter experts to explore and/or document the wellness indicators, processes, policies, activities, interventions, and resources that flow from Ontario’s Indigenous communities and nations. Building on prior work at the IIs and IIC, the resulting wellness model framework constitutes the first phase of a longer-horizon initiative to develop a self-care toolkit, or “personal wellness bundle” that uses innovative delivery modalities to meaningfully engage Indigenous college, university, and skilled trades learners. In this session, representatives of Ontario’s IIs and the IIC will present the project’s unique methodology and findings, including successful modalities for sharing insights across and within communities and community-based organizations; the cultural and relational foundations of wellbeing in Indigenous educational contexts; the deep impacts of COVID-19 on conceptions of wellness, and ideas about how it is best protected and promoted; the centrality of land and language into functional well-being models; lessons learned through prior wellness initiatives; the key distinctions between “Indigenous” and “Indigenized” frameworks, and why mainstream models are both insufficient and inappropriate; and emerging best practices in culturally grounded wraparound supports for holistic and whole-person wellbeing.

This presentation is based on a recent comparative review of post-secondary students’ presenting issues and usage of counselling services both before and during the pandemic period at King’s University College in London, Ontario. Results will be shared regarding secondary data that was analyzed over three years (2018-2021) and illustrated with an applied case study. Key findings indicate a substantive drop in student numbers seeking assistance, despite a dramatic increase in presenting issues. The most prominent counselling issues were resiliency/coping/stress, mood and emotions, university life, and relational concerns, and a noteworthy increase in diversity-related issues. These results are especially relevant given the transition to online learning that exacerbated mental health issues for post-secondary students. The presenters will share how these results, and changes in students’ requests for services, have impacted decisions about wellness services and student engagement. Participants will have an opportunity to share their experiences with service delivery changes.

Abstinence, or the elimination of all eating disorder symptoms and behaviours, is often regarded as essential to eating disorder recovery. Though eating disorders are increasingly being understood as products of social injustice, the common goal of abstinence fails to consider individuals’ unique experiences of marginalization as well as the realistic possibility of relapse. What should happen if an individual is not ready to commit to the end goal of abstinence, is unable to cease all eating disorder behaviours, or does not have access to timely, appropriate services/supports? These questions are paramount when considering how to adequately address the surge of eating disorders among post-secondary student populations as precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this presentation, the practice of harm reduction will be defined and articulated as a trauma-informed, social justice-oriented approach in the context of eating disorders. Actionable ideas for incorporating harm reduction-based support in post-secondary environments will be included.

In 2020. the five GTA (Greater Toronto Area) Colleges came together in an effort to collectively collaborate on enacting the Post-Secondary Mental Health Standards across our campuses. As GTA partners, we believe we have a shared responsibility to collaborate rather than compete when it comes to supporting our students’ well-being and creating supportive environments for their success. This panel discussion will provide an overview of our work to date. We will share practical insights and success stories from our collaboration as well as highlighting the tools we’ve created in an effort to support other post-secondary schools to enact the Standard.

The collective grief spurred by overlapping global crises and social injustices has demonstrated the need to re-evaluate how we respond to grief as a society. Grieving university students face particular hardships as they often encounter a lack of effective support among their peers following a loss (Balk, 2011), and their grief expression may be misread through a mental health lens. This workshop will lead participants through a visioning exercise inspired by Breen et al. (2020) to conceptualize what a ‘grief literate’ campus might look like. ‘Grief literacy’ is defined as the “capacity to access, process, and use knowledge regarding the experience of loss” to develop more compassionate communities of care for those grieving (Breen et al., 2020, p. 3). The facilitators will provide participants with core knowledge surrounding death and grief literacy and will facilitate an engaged discussion about the application of these concepts on campus.

This workshop will begin by providing an overview of a research study in which data from the National College Health Assessment were examined and interviews with 38 doctoral students who identified as having a mental health conditions were done. Throughout the session, the various challenges that graduate students experience around mental health will be discussed, as well as the supports that are accessed to mediate these challenges. Participants will be invited to contribute to the session through participating in a Mentimeter activity, in which challenges and supports for graduate students are brainstormed. Attendees will leave with tangible questions for consideration for their own institutions, in terms of how graduate students’ mental health and wellness can be further addressed.

In the fall of  2022, CICMH launched the Indigenous Post-Secondary Project. The primary objective of this project is to conduct a needs assessment to identify gaps that exist in supporting Indigenous post-secondary student mental health and well-being across Ontario​. The goal was to better understand how best to improve mental health services for Indigenous Students from a student and staff perspective. This project took on two main routes, a provincial wide survey of Indigenous Students and Staff, as well as a Sharing Circle conducted at Cambrian College.

This panel discussion will include Megan VanEvery, the project lead as well as Ron Sarazin from Cambrian. They will cover both a fulsome discussion of the results and recommendations  of the project, as well as providing context on how the findings are applicable to making change at the college.

We can’t underestimate the power of a peer, whether they be a classmate, neighbour, friend, or stranger. The Mindful Campus Initiative embraces this power through one of its key components: our peer-to-peer model. Mindful Campus is an innovative project spearheaded by OCAD U, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, and delivered in partnership with the Centre for Mindfulness Studies. A nearly $4 million public grant, Mindful Campus will be implemented on six University campuses this Fall.

This presentation shows how Mindful Campus meaningfully incorporates mindfulness and peer facilitation to support students’ mental wellness. We will speak to some of the stressors that post-secondary students face and will share how mindfulness with peer facilitators’ support is being explored as a sustainable tool for community-based wellbeing. Together, we will speak to how you can galvanize the power of a present and aware peer in others and yourself.

The Knowledge Institute on Child and Youth Mental Health and Addictions acknowledges the need to better support the sector around substance use and addictions. As a first step, we interviewed leaders, service providers, young people and families (n=113) from service areas and sectors across Ontario. Using thematic analysis, we generated themes related to current state, notable programming, and priority needs, concerns, gaps, challenges, and recommendations. Results point to a fragmented system, where specialized resources and knowledge are lacking, and it is challenging to address the complex needs of young people with substance use and addiction concerns.

This panel will open with a presentation on the needs assessment outcomes, focusing on themes relevant to post-secondary and transition-aged youth. A sector leader, service provider and young person will then discuss implications of this work from personal, contextual and system-level perspectives, including next steps for research and knowledge mobilization to support the sector.

Notre communication porte sur la santé mentale des étudiants internationaux francophones en contexte de minorité au Canada notamment en Ontario, au Manitoba et en Alberta. Il s’agit d’un projet financé par le Secrétariat du Québec aux relations canadiennes (SQRC). L’objectif du projet est de concevoir, implémenter et évaluer les effets d’une plateforme virtuelle pour améliorer la santé mentale des étudiants internationaux. Dans cette communication, nous présenterons une brève recension de la littérature sur les approches d’intervention en santé mentale et la plateforme d’intervention de première ligne qui améliorerait l’accès aux ressources d’aides psychologiques en français. Ensuite, nous présenterons les divers axes de questionnaires que nous avons utilisés pour mesurer la détresse psychologique, l’anxiété et la dépression chez les étudiants internationaux. Ces questionnaires sont disponibles sur le site internet du projet. Enfin, nous présenterons quelques données préliminaires sur la santé mentale des étudiants.

Student mental health continues to be a challenge for post-secondary institutions. Many schools have implemented mental health initiatives to address this problem; however, students are faced with barriers that make campus supports inaccessible. Additionally, demand for care continues to rise; therefore, creative and sustainable solutions are needed. We believe that educators can play a critical role with respect to supporting students; however, they have historically not been included in campus mental health initiatives. This workshop is co-led by a Science Educator and Stepped Care 2.0 Consultant, who formed a partnership after the 2022 conference. During the session, attendees will be given an opportunity to discuss how educators can support students and identify the challenges they face. The facilitators will provide practical and effective strategies to encourage educators to support students’ mental health. Participants will leave the session with a better understanding of how they can contribute to a healthy campus.

This presentation will highlight SC2.0 as a full campus approach to open access to support, normalizing the importance of well-being, and mobilizing every member of the campus community to support mental health and substance use health. Algonquin College will provide an applied example of engaging diverse perspectives among staff and students across campus to create an easy-to-access “menu” of supports available to meet a wide range of student mental health needs. This menu includes formal and informal services and resources along a full continuum of care available on campus as well as those offered in the community through partnerships.

OUSA’s presentation will draw from our own published policy papers, written and informed by students, to discuss the role of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) plays in on-campus mental health supports and how they can better support marginalized students in an increasingly combative social climate. The presentation will explore the impact of systemic issues like racism, religious discrimination, accessibility barriers, homophobia, and transphobia on student engagement. It will then explore the barriers these students face when attempting to access mental health supports, such as the deficit in student-driven safe spaces and inadequate provision for culturally relevant and sensitive care. Student-driven policy recommendations that actively incorporate EDI principles will be discussed, demonstrating the ways that the government can support institutions in employing a whole-of-community approach as they strive to create more equitable access to services and programming that support the mental health of students from marginalized groups.

To increase connection, well-being, learning, and belonging among Indigenous and non-Indigenous peer leaders, 4 departments at Georgian College have partnered to establish a collaborative hiring, recruitment and training process centered upon Indigenous knowledges and sharing practices. The intent of this collaboration is to build strong peer relationships grounded in the values of the Seven Grandfather Teachings and the Medicine Wheel of Wellness. Through this panel discussion we will explain the rationale of this project, and outline our intentional plan to enhance student development opportunities to learn together, from each other, valuing multiple perspectives and knowledges. Join us to learn about this pilot project, hear from student participants about their experiences and consider how you might apply a similar process in your work.

Our students experienced a social identity crisis as they were fully remote and isolated from their peers during the pandemic. Our students and their learning needs have changed. Now more than ever we need to focus on creating spaces for our students to become engaged with their post-secondary education to enhance the student experience and increase the sense of belonging.

For many students, we know that when their social life fails, college fails. Our students need supports and interventions that are proactive in nature to enhance connections with others.

This session will focus on proactive engagement strategies through the well-being, accessibility, social inclusion and first year experience programs which have helped our students increase their engagement both on and off campus. We will share how we have created space to increase student belonging in the first year, including how we utilized new physical and virtual spaces for engagement and access.

This panel session features insights about 18-24 year olds from recent studies undertaken by RGC. Specific learnings from ethno-cultural research and on iGaming and sports bettors will be shared while evidence-informed programs available to campuses will be showcased. Multiple presenters will discuss why gambling can no longer be considered a “nice to have” but a “must have”.

Studies have demonstrated that Black, Indigenous and Students of Colour (BISOC) are continuously exposed to various forms of racial discrimination, outside and within universities. For example, a recent study found that 60.4% of Black people between the ages of 15 and 40 in Canada reported experiencing major racial discrimination in high school, college or university. Although the impact of racial discrimination, profiling, microaggressions and racism on the physical and mental health of students has been known for a long time, little has been done to adapt the care provided to them within the university mental health system. To this day, the care provided to them is often culturally and racially inappropriate and does not address the complex racial trauma they are exposed to. One consequence of inadequate care is that few BISOC use university mental health services, despite being among those most at risk for developing common mental health problems.

Students are accessing funding to attend university and a diverse group of students attend the Bachelor of Social Work Program. As they bring their own personal experience of childhood trauma, racism, living in poverty, and other difficulties, they need support to face the triggering and the possibility of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Sometimes the professors don’t realize how difficult the learning is for students and they’re being re-traumatized; sometimes causing their peers to experience vicarious trauma. With support these students can overcome the triggering and trauma and become empathetic, resilient social workers in the community.

Today we will talk about ways that universities can support the mental well-being of students that experience mental health challenges from the traumatic learning that is required in a social work program. Universities can evolve from traditional ways to delivering education and create a community of support, and safe spaces for students to heal.

In this workshop, we will share some of our processes for meaningful youth engagement in our Design Labs, which is the primary method we use in co-design work with youth. This will include engaging in some of the activities we use in our virtual co-design work, discussing some of the other important elements that we like to include in the Design Labs, and sharing some examples of resources or tools that we co-designed with young people with insight to parts of the process.

As we emerge into a new world of ongoing challenges to mental and physical wellness, Get Crafty offers the opportunity to gather safely in a friendly environment to promote connection, play, and relaxation.

In this workshop, we will recreate a session of our free drop-in arts-based program, Get Crafty, for participants. Get Crafty is a space to meet, play, be creative and have great conversations, all while engaging in making a simple craft project. All tools and materials lists will be provided in advance. Join us for a relaxing session of making, chatting, and calming your mind. While we make together, we will talk about our experiences developing this adaptable program, the impacts on mental-wellness gleaned from participating students, and why programs promoting creativity, play, and hands-on engagement continue to be a vital part of many students’ experiences outside the high pressure academic classroom.

This presentation examines the national and provincial data regarding trends in cannabis, alcohol and vaping products over the past 5 years, including after legalization of cannabis in 2018 and during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020-2023. In the first half of this presentation, we will examine the usage patterns of substances, risks of co-use, trends in impaired driving, methods of consumption, reasons for use/non-use, spectrum of substance use. With all of this information, we will spend the second half of this presentation discussing how we can use this information to help inform our discussions with youth and peers about substance use to promote positive development, safer consumption and prevent/lower the risk of harms.

Our collaborative conversation will be between three cannabis education organizations, Voxcann, Get Sensible, and the Cannabis and Mental Health Project, on cannabis use and mental health in young adults. This panel will encourage staff, faculty, and student leaders to reflect on: (1) the experience of stigma associated with cannabis use and mental health, (2) having effective conversations with young people about cannabis use, (3) the historical legacy of the war on drugs and the current context of legalization, (4) engaging the campus community in harm reduction efforts, and (5)reasons for use and risks of using cannabis, and knowing how to be there for a student or friend.

We will also discuss the central role of meaningful youth engagement in each project. The CICMH community will hear directly from youth leaders and advocates about what effective youth-led projects look like in action and will feel empowered to meaningfully involve youth in their work.

The mental health and wellness of our students is intertwined with our institutional culture and community. Nurturing strong and critically reflexive teams therefore is instrumental to ensuring we continue to be adaptive and responsive to our students’ needs. This presentation will map an ongoing journey our Counselling team at Sheridan College is on, whereby we critically and reflexively examined our culture, re-shaped and re-envisioned our commitments to ourselves and the students we serve, and co-constructed a ‘culture book’ which serves to both orient others to the values which guide our practice, as well as tether us to what is most important. Participants will be invited into what this process was like and our outcomes thus far, and welcomed to consider what this journey might look like within your own communities, including potential upshots for nurturing vibrant post secondary spaces where students, and those who support them, are able to thrive.

Our workshop will explore the new Indigenous Jack Talks program being offered by Jack.org which prioritizes youth story-telling in order to work towards life promotion and mental well-being through a community care lens. Participants will get a look into our two-part program designed to engage Indigenous youth. First organizers show a video introducing social determinants of mental health from Indigenous perspectives, this is followed by story-telling videos featuring Indigenous youth from across Turtle Island. The second piece of programming is a sharing circle where Indigenous youth can dive into conversations on mental health with Indigenous facilitators and explore new areas of learning.