Goal to improve student mental health the focus of 40 recommendations in new University of Guelph report | CBC News

The University of Guelph has released a new report — including 40 recommendations — to address ways to improve student mental health.

The report released April 3 was in response to growing concerns about how students are handling stress, anxiety and mental health concerns on campus.

“Between 2013 and 2022, Canadian students reported an increase in psychological distress, help-seeking for mental health concerns, diagnoses of mental health illnesses, and overall languishing mental health. Similar, but slightly lower, rates of poor mental health have been reported at U of G,” the report says.

As part of work that began in January 2023, the task force that worked on the report spoke with more than 2,000 Guelph students to help come up with the thorough list of recommendations. 

The president of the university, Charlotte Yates, said that it was important to publicly release the report with recommendations for “accountability” and “transparency.” 

“By releasing those 40 recommendations, we therefore enable the community, and I mean the campus community in this case, to hold us accountable and then to ask questions about what’s going on with this particular recommendation,” she told CBC News.

She added this will also give staff, faculty and students a chance “to engage with us in making that recommendation come alive, so it’s about accountability.”  

WATCH | What do students think of U of Guelph’s new recommendations aiming to improve their mental health?

What do students think of U of Guelph’s new recommendations aiming to improve their mental health?

A special report by the University of Guelph lists 40 recommendations that aim to improve the mental health of students on campus. The recommendations focus on things like “mental health awareness and anti-stigma” and “crisis management” to name a few. CBC News spoke to some students on campus to see what they think of this initiative.

On-campus supports ‘easily accessible,’ student says

The recommendations focus on things like “institutional structure and policy,” “mental health awareness and anti-stigma,” “student self-management and coping skills”, and “crisis management.”

Second-year studio arts major, Kayla Pryce, said that she’d already used some mental health services on campus and praised the counsellors she’s interacted with. 

“Knowing that there’s things on campus that are easily accessible to us is useful and comforting to students,” Pryce told CBC News.

Pryce welcomed the news of the new initiative by the university. 

“The fact that they’re trying to implement more things can only be good,” she said.

Concerns report is ‘lip service’

Second-year political science student Trey Anderson said a main source of his stress comes from academics and more specifically, his course load. He complained about high tuition costs, too. 

He said the initiative by the university is “a step in the right direction” but he has some reservations about it, too. 

“It might just be lip service because a lot of the time university claims to care about student’s mental health but they don’t actually make legitimate changes in making the course loads different … and maybe making practical change to actually make students’ lives easier,” he said.

Anderson added it “depends on if the recommendations are actually legitimate and they actually implement them properly.” 

Yates invited the criticism by Anderson. 

“I think that comment is really helpful and it really fits with the approach taken in … the 2023 task force report on student mental health and I say that because we’ve taken here a holistic approach,” Yates said.

LISTEN | A new University of Guelph report offers 40 recommendations to improve student mental health:

“It means that it’s not just about the particular services you provide. It’s about taking a full review of the campus, and it’s about policies, institutions,” she added.

“It’s about the programs we have, it’s about housing. So it takes a holistic approach and in that way hopefully it does address that student’s concerns.”   

According to the report, a steering committee made up of five members will be in charge of making sure the university follows through on implementing the recommendations and progress can be followed online through the university’s website.  

Yates said they will “aim to achieve” all the recommendations, but that “they’re not going to be achieved in the next year or two.” 

“Many of these changes will take time,” she said.

Yates explained the university will prioritize the ones they can accomplish right away “so they have immediate impact, while [they] work at those that may be longer term with lasting impact.”