The Ontario government has launched an annual $7 million investment in an effort to increase mental health services across Ontario campuses.
The Mental Health Innovation Fund includes a total of $7 million per year until 2015, to be allocated among various “system-wide and multi-institutional” projects throughout Ontario’s post-secondary community, according to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MCTU)
Projects seeking funding “must include a commitment to sharing results and best practices” throughout all Ontario campuses, however consideration will be given to projects that centre around one particular institution. Proposals reportedly will be accepted over the course of the next month.
One of the main goals of the fund is “to identify and address gaps . . . in mental health services for Ontario post-secondary students, on and off campuses, as they transition to and journey through their post-secondary studies at publicly funded universities and colleges of applied arts and technology,” according to the MTCU.
It will also serve to facilitate partnerships between the various funded projects and other mental health care providers in Ontario.
The provincial government’s announcement comes amidst a report from McMaster University indicating that approximately 35 per cent of the institution’s students currently feel depressed, and just over one per cent have attempted suicide.
The report is based on a 2009 survey of 950 undergraduate students, which was presented by McMaster’s mental health team nurse Debra Earl at a town hall meeting marking mental illness awareness week.
About 6.5 per cent of the surveyed students had considered suicide, while around half indicated they felt overwhelmed with anxiety, according to Earl.
Josh Rosenberg, a second-year political science student at the University of Guelph who claims he dealt with depression approximately three years ago, said the transition from high school to university can have a significant impact on one’s mental health.
“Even in university, we tend to overrate how important academics are and underrate the psychological impact of the drastic change from high school,” said Rosenberg, who said he feels the new fund will help raise awareness for mental health issues on campus.
“A lot of these people don’t know where to go and a lot of these things can be prevented if caught early if there’s someone reliable for students to talk to because there’s so much stress in their lives.”
The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), which represents 150,000 professional and undergraduate, full and part-time university students, said it was “pleased” with the MTCU’s announcement.
Earlier this year, the OUSA issued a report outlining the need for such a fund from the government, specifically one that would allow “community-driven solutions” to mental health concerns.
“OUSA is pleased that the government has taken this recommendation and turned it into action that has the potential to help hundreds of thousands of students,” OUSA executive director Rylan Kinnon said in a press release.
The OUSA, along with Colleges Ontario, the Council of Ontario Universities, and the College Student Alliance, also co-hosted a conference in May to discuss how campuses can increase their support of students with mental health issues.
“Students in post-secondary are usually of the most common age of onset for mental health issues, but also are the most likely to recover and adopt effective coping strategies,” OUSA president Alysha Li said.
“It is excellent that our voices were heard and the government is taking a leading role in providing this support,” she said.
For Rosenberg, the most important thing to remember about mental health awareness is how unaware one may be of his or her own mental health issues.
“People think that they’re going to see it coming and that’s the big misconception. I think if I had one message to the public, it would be that you don’t know,” he said.
“It’s underneath the surface and you’re not going to find it [immediately]. The whole ‘I’ll catch it when I see it’ [mentality] doesn’t work.”
