The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) has launched a new initiative called Wellness Wednesdays this year to provide support for students who are struggling with their mental health.
The initiative aims to promote mental wellbeing by organizing an activity on campus every Wednesday, such as dance sessions and self-care nights.
Lily Akagbosu, CUSA vice-president (student issues), said Wellness Wednesdays are a response to an increased demand from students for mental health services on campus.
Akagbosu said while it’s beneficial to have pop-up events like CUSA’s week-long Pop the Stigma campaign, students want something more in the long-term.
“The issues students have don’t last a week,” she said, adding that the initiative is based on addressing eight different areas of student life, called the “eight dimensions of wellness”: emotional, physical, intellectual, financial, environmental, occupational, spiritual, and social.
“What we mean is that those different factors of our life contribute to overall wellbeing and we recognize that as students, those different factors interact and contribute to the wellbeing of our students on campus,” she said. “In terms of providing mental health support, we’re being cognizant of how we can also improve those different aspects of their lives so that ultimately, they are in an enabling environment where their mental health can thrive.”
She added that a disturbance in any one of these areas of life leads to disturbances in others, which, over time, compromises an individual’s mental health.
To keep these aspects of life in balance, she said the initiative will provide services aimed at promoting self-care, like distributing tea and baked goods, as well as more hands-on activities like yoga and crafting that act as an escape.
The initiative kicked off on Oct. 10—on World Mental Health Day—with a group painting session that students and faculty participated in, including Benoit-Antoine Bacon, Carleton’s president and vice-chancellor.
Akagbosu said the initiative is unique in that it involves collaborating with other student organizations on campus.
“A lot of the time, there’s different organizations within campus that are working towards the same thing. However, they’re not working as closely as they should, and they don’t have as much reach,” she said. “Wellness Wednesdays is inviting collaboration in the sense that, if anyone is looking to organize an event, there’s the opportunity to put that on a Wednesday because it will have maximum promotion.”
The initiative is already working with the Student Mental Health Engagement Committee to organize future events and encourage anyone interested to come forward with other ideas for activities, Akagbosu added
CUSA president David Oladejo said it’s important to discuss disturbances in mental health on campus.
“It’s something that a lot of us experience,” Oladejo said.
According to him, events like these are important to encourage students to “take a few moments to relax from studying and other daily stresses.”
Roopinder Nagra, fourth-year law and human rights student, said she agreed, adding that the weekly events are a way to “disengage from schoolwork.”
“You don’t feel the commitment . . . you just go there and do something for yourself,” she said.
Nagra said she has participated in several mental health events on campus before, including a therapy dog session.
Wellness Wednesdays will continue to take place at various locations around campus throughout the year.
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