Roadmap for Action 2021-25

Cultivating an Environment of Support

The goal of the Healthy Minds Healthy College Strategy is to cultivate an environment of support that provides a sense of well-being, belonging, connectedness and positive mental health for all students, faculty and staff to support academic and career success. Since the initiative launched in 2014, substantial work has been done. This document recognizes the strengths that are currently in place, while providing a path forward to guide the work that remains.

Fostering the development of positive mental health by supporting individual resilience, creating supportive environments and addressing the influence of the broader determinants of mental health are key components of promoting mental health.¹ That is why our strategy focuses not only on building individual coping skills and encouraging help-seeking behaviour but takes a systemic approach, aiming to create interpersonal and organizational conditions that foster positive mental health. This comprehensive strategy intends to support every member of the College community at multiple levels and in ways that respect all forms of diversity. It is our way forward.

As an added challenge, this must be done within a context where the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we all learn and work. Although at first glance, it may be tempting to put mental health promotion work on hold while we await a return to usual operations, a closer look would find this unwise. COVID-19 has created rapid and unavoidable change, stress, isolation and economic disruption, which are all psychological health and safety hazards. Further, there are warnings of an “echo pandemic” of poor mental health. Thus, it is even more important that the work of creating a healthy community, conducive to positive well-being, continues.

In this new reality, the number of students and staff with “concerns about coping” (see Figure 1) is likely to increase. It’s imperative, therefore, that we use evidence-based strategies to respond to early indicators of concern and help all develop self- management competencies and coping skills.

The Roadmap does not replace previous documents (e.g., HMHC Charter), but complements and extends these while serving as a strategic guide, assisting in decision making and resource allocation.

This document outlines current campus initiatives and target areas. The current campus initiatives are an inventory of the strengths, programs and resources already in place. Target areas are opportunities for improvement. Current campus initiatives and target areas highlighted do not belong to one College department or division as we recognize that becoming a health-promoting institution requires organization-wide collaboration. The Healthy Minds Healthy College Steering Committee, however, serves as a catalyst for moving the work forward in alignment with the College’s strategic plan.

Our Senior Leadership Team endorses the actions outlined in this Roadmap as critical to advancing our mental health strategy toward the ultimate goal of being a health-promoting institution. Within a context of finite resources, endorsement of this Roadmap does not automatically ensure all resource requests will be approved, however such requests will be considered through the lens of the Roadmap. While the actions will require commitment, collaboration and investment, they will result in an engaged, vibrant workforce and student body.

¹ Canadian Institute for Health Information

Background

We are grateful to the many individuals, committees and organizations that have advanced knowledge related to workplace and campus mental health. Our Roadmap is informed by the documents listed below.

• RRC Polytech Healthy Minds Healthy College Project Charter
• RRC Polytech Healthy Minds Healthy College Survey and Focus Groups Summary Report
• Reducing Student Stress and Improving Mental Health: A Literature Review Prepared for RRC Polytech Healthy Minds Healthy College
• RRC Polytech Strategic Plan: 2016-2021
• Breaking Down Barriers: Mental Health and Canadian Post-Secondary Students, CASA
• Understanding Mental Health and Mental Illness and Their Impacts in the Workplace, MHCC
  and Morneau Shepell
• National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace
• Draft Standard for Psychological Health and Safety of Post-Secondary Students
• 2013 Canadian Community Health Survey
• Post-Secondary Student Mental Health: Guide to a Systemic Approach, CACUSS and Canadian Mental Health Association
• Promoting Mental Health: Summary Report, World Health Organization
• The Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges
• Policy Approaches to Post-Secondary Student Mental Health: A Scan of Current Practice

Strategy

This section presents a scan of our current campus initiatives along with target actions within each of the seven key levels.

Initial Priorities

After consultation with internal and external stakeholders, we have determined the following to be the initial priorities.

Credits

The report was prepared by the Healthy Minds Healthy College Steering Committee.

Additional guidance was provided by the Healthy Minds Healthy College Advisory Group, which is comprised of staff, students and faculty who care deeply about mental health.

We thank our Senior Leadership Sponsors Aileen Nadjuch (Executive Director, Community and Student Services) and Melanie Gudmundson (Chief Human Resource Officer).