This past week, McGill hosted its first Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW), which consisted of a series of panels and workshops with the purpose of increasing awareness for mental health issues on campus.
According to Access Services Advisor Gordon Dionne, the idea for MHAW originated when McGill’s Ombudsperson, Dr. Spencer Boudreau, proposed it to Senate, as many students were coming to see him about mental health issues. Eventually, the idea reached Student Services, where Dionne picked it up as a project on behalf of McGill Mental Health Services.
“It’s still spearheaded by Mental Health, but it’s really become a cross-divisional project,” Dionne said. “Most of Student Services [have been] involved at all levels throughout the whole week [and] everybody on campus has been invited to come to all the events.”
Mental Health Services conceived of MHAW as a result of Canadian universities’ growing realization of the importance of mental health issues on campus, and was tied into last week’s National Mental Illness Awareness Week.
MHAW’s panels included a lecture by Lina Di Genova, manager of student assessment at Student Services, and Vera Romano, clinical director of Counselling Service, entitled, “Spotlight on Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-Being at McGill.” Di Genova and Romano presented the findings of a McGill survey that was based on Pennsylvania State University’s mental health and counselling benchmark study.
Approximately 2,500 McGill students took part in this anonymous, web-based survey that encompassed eight categories of mental health issues: depression, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, academic distress, eating concerns, family distress, substance and alcohol abuse, and hostility.
The survey’s results were analyzed in relation to demographic intersectionalities. For example, of the 50 per cent of the student sample who reported dealing with depression on a recurring basis, there were higher proportions of women and students who were experiencing financial difficulties.
Di Genova and Romano’s lecture also hypothesized reasons for the increase of mental health issues on campus, including biological factors, family-related stressors, as well as “Generation Me”—a phenomenon which indicates that young adults feel a high need to be exceptional due to societal pressures, but struggle with doing so in a period of global economic crisis.
According to Romano, Student Services can improve their assistance to students dealing with mental health issues by focusing on resiliency and wellness, instead of using negative language to approach such issues.
“Mental health is not the absence of disease or distress, but the promotion of holistic wellness,” Romano said.
The panel ended with an overview of the various organizations that promote wellness at McGill, including Fitness McGill, Counselling Services, and the Health Promotion Team.
“We want to really help engage students and empower them to take ownership of their own wellness,” Di Genova said. “[They should] feel as though they’re a part of the [McGill] community.”
MHAW also offered free yoga sessions to students throughout the week. Yoga instructor Annie Shiel led a “Yoga for Stress” session this past Friday.
“It’s not an exercise class,” Shiel explained. “It’s really focused on what yoga does for your mind. We try to help people let go of everything else for 60 minutes, and give people tools that they can use off of the mat as well.”
Yoga for Stress is normally put on by Fit @ McGill and the Eating Disorder Program.
Overall, Dionne expressed satisfaction with how the inaugural MHAW has been received by the McGill community.
“I [saw] more and more people coming to the events [as the week progressed], and wearing the orange buttons that were made as a part of the campaign,” Dionne said. “It’s exciting to see that people are actively supporting the idea of having a ‘well campus.’ ”
