Mental Health

Jacques Frémont

Frémont discusses the university’s response to allegations of racism and racial profiling levelled at Protection Services, the impacts of the Student Choice Initiative and what’s being done after a string of student deaths in residence last year.

In an overwhelmed healthcare system and at a time of intense pressure in the academic year, our campus mental health services should have an expanded availability to correspond to the potential increase in students experiencing a crisis.

“It’s a scary world … I’m just thankful to not have been a teenager in the world of the iPhone.” — Lynne McInally, clinical social worker, therapist and instructor at Humber College.

“For some people it’s almost a joke, like ‘yeah yeah yeah I had my ADHD day yesterday … when we know … it’s so different to have it 24/7.”

During my first year at university, the administration and one of my professors severely let me down, and I know I’m not alone. Currently, professors at the university are offered mental health training optionally alongside other members of the community. Professors at the U of O need to be given mandatory mental health sensitivity training.

While we’re devoting our love and time to helping loved ones, we can often forget to take care of our own well-being in the process. This means taking some time each day to check in with your own mental health and having the courage to realize you might need some time to yourself to care for your own health.

“It’s a responsibility I think as healthcare providers to be able to understand and to be more sensitized to the different backgrounds your patients are coming from. I’m sitting here in your office, you’re my therapist, it’s not my job to be like ‘Well no, this is how immigrant parents think.’ You need to step up and educate yourself.”

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