Western University and Fanshawe College are expanding mental health supports for students thanks to $905,289 from the provincial government.
Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Jeff Yurek made the announcement Friday alongside the presidents of the London, Ont., post-secondary institutions.
“The past year has been really tough for all of us,” Yurek said, referencing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“For post-secondary students, these challenges are taking place during what should be the most exciting, the more memorable and fulfilling times in life. It’s … one of many tragedies of this pandemic and something I know Western and Fanshawe are working hard to address.”
Western will be receiving $514,806, which it is sharing with its affiliated university colleges based on student populations, and Fanshawe will be receiving $390,483.
President Alan Shepard says the provincial funding will go towards a number of high-priority projects, including expanding the number of hours of counselling support available to all students.
“We are making it a high priority that if someone’s in emergency need, they can be seen virtually immediately. We don’t want people having to wait days before they can be seen,” he said.
The funding will also allow for the university to increase the amount of specialized counselling available to students of colour, LGBTQ2 students and students who are Indigenous.
“These are important for communities for us, often carrying special stresses and we’re very pleased we’re able to expand our care for them.”
Michele Beaudoin, VP of student services at Fanshawe College, says some of the funding it receives will go towards expanding group sessions with students.
“We’re finding that some of the individual appointments are reducing, and the need and request for group sessions is increasing and that may be in part because of social isolation,” she explained.
Beaudoin says the college is also looking to increase some of the after-hours crisis support it offers through partnerships with the Canadian Mental Health Association and access to WellTrack, an interactive self-help therapy tool.
The college already has a toolkit to support faculty, she says, and is now in the midst of developing a toolkit geared towards students “to help them understand what services are available.”
During the pandemic, both post-secondary institutions have been operating in a blended or mixed model, combining online and in-person learning.
President Peter Devlin says Fanshawe has many programs delivered entirely online while some applied learning programs involve a mix of online and in-person labs.
“It’s challenging in many instances for students to take their learning online. They aren’t supported the same way with the community of students, their classmates beside them. They’re at home or in residence or in some type of rented accommodation. So their accommodation needs are different,” he said, adding that he believes that adds to the level of stress and uncertainty facing students.
Shepard says about 12,000 Western students have been on campus during the fall term and the university had focused on having people on campus “to the extent that we could safely accomplish it.”
“We did pivot almost a year ago to mostly online teaching and I think we’ve done remarkably well on short notice. But I think most people would say they’d be happy to get back to in person teaching. And that’s what we’re planning for September.”
Even before the pandemic, the province says mental health needs of post-secondary students had been increasing dramatically.
In a release, the province included data from the last national College Health Assessment survey of the Canadian student population, from 2019. The survey found that 52 per cent of students reported feeling depressed and 69 per cent experienced anxiety.
The funding is part of $26.25 million from the province for mental health supports for post-secondary students in 2020-21 in Ontario