Recently, the University of Toronto (U of T) attempted to approve a problematic policy that would allow the school to put students with mental health issues on mandatory leave.
Even if its approval was delayed by Renu Mandhane, the chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), the fact that a policy like this was even considered is disturbing. Universities are portraying a message that individuals with mental health issues should not have the same access to education as individuals who do not.
This is directly related to the issue of mental health accessibility, a topic that has only recently been discussed in the context of education. Mental health accessibility refers to the individual’s access to services regarding mental health. This includes mental healthcare for serious mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression, and everyday professional counselling services.
Mental healthcare accessibility is crucial because it treats actual illnesses and improves the individual lives of students and ultimately the school environment, along with benefiting communities by nurturing students to become productive members of society.
The case of Falum Gibson at Carleton University illustrates the importance of mental healthcare accessibility on campus. In a previous article published in the Charlatan, Gibson said that she struggles with borderline personality disorder and suicidal thoughts. Instead of providing her with a feasible safety plan that would allow her to remain in residence, the school ended up placing her on mandatory leave. Besides being removed from the school community, she has also struggled to find alternate accommodations, due to the shortage of accessible housing in Ottawa for people with disabilities.
Both of these cases show the lack of mental health services available for students. As well, both cases are paramount in understanding why Canadian universities should invest in improving and reconfiguring their approach to providing the necessary support for students with mental health issues.
Along with halting pending decisions to pass the mandatory leave policy drafted by the U of T, institutions like the OHRC have a duty to suggest and implement plans that provide necessary access to mental health services, including counselling.
This is what campuses need: making these services with mental health specialists accessible. In the Varsity, the U of T’s student newspaper, students Ilya Bañares and Josie Kao stated that “If the university is only meeting the absolute minimum requirement legally for ‘the duty to accommodate’ then it is clear the policy is not doing enough to support students.” Essentially, this statement shows the lack of responsibility that the U of T exercised when faced with the task of providing students with adequate services for mental health needs on campus. Furthermore, when looking at the incidents, we need to make sure that Carleton does not continue to fall into the same trap.
Merely providing the bare minimum is clearly not enough for students with mental health issues to reach their full potential.
