Donut Worry! Boosting Student Attendance for mental health initiatives.

Melissa Mushikori – Student Success Manager, International College of Manitoba, Canada

Mental Health is Hard to Talk About

• For most people mental health is not something that is openly discussed even with the great strides being made to change this.

• For international students this is even more apparent as many of them come from countries where this is never discussed, acknowledged or validated.

• This can act as a double edged sword for international students who are adjusting to a new culture, learning environment and way of life.

What is our Goal?

• To normalize talking about mental health in any setting.

• To ensure students know what resources are available to them if they need help.

• To create a multitude of platforms that will peak the interests of the variety of personality types we have in our students.

• To encourage student-led participation and dialog moving forward.

• To equip students with the knowledge and resources they need to achieve optimal mental health.

Initiatives and Programming at ICM

• ILS Class Presentations.

• Resource 101 lunch hour workshops during the first weeks (Schedule A and B Documents).

• Special Lunch Hour Events (Bell Let’s Talk Day, Donut Worry, Yoga)

• MY ISSP

• Mental Health First Aid Training for all frontline staff.

ILS Class Presentations

• ILS (Integrating Learning Systems) A mandatory class for all new UTPII students at ICM.

• In conjunction with the Student Support Case Managers at The University of Manitoba.

• 2 hour presentation on safety, wellbeing, mental health, consent, alcohol use, and resources.

• Encourages students to share and engage in dialog in an open, safe, and respectful environment.

• Positive Reponses- On multiple occasions students have come to us after the presentations to open up.

Resource 101 Workshops

• During the second week of classes we hold two resources 101 workshops.

• Schedule A- A document that includes a list of resources for students such as on and off campus counselling, crisis counselling, campus safety, and emergency procedures.

• Schedule B- A more comprehensive list of resources including doctor and medi clinic info, food banks, family planning resources, transportation information, religious group information, where to buy grocery and foods from back home etc.

• Students are invited to come and learn about all that is available to them both on and off campus to ensure an ease of transition.

Special Lunch Hour Events

• Bell Lets Talk Day- Bell is a Canadian Communications Provider that has an awareness campaign in normalizing talking about mental health. In January of each year there is a designated “Bell Let’s Talk Day.”

• ICM held an event where we did a short presentation on mental health, we had cake and hot chocolate, and we asked students to write what mental health means to them on a speech balloon that we printed and displayed around the college.

• Over 70 students attended this event!

Special Lunch Hour Events

• Donut Worry!- We held an event where we had coloring pages, hot chocolate and doughnuts right around midterm time when stress starts to rise.

• It was an hour of relaxing with friends, doing some coloring and enjoying some doughnuts.

• We had over 50 students in attendance.

Ongoing Supports and Resources

• My ISSP- Our students have access to MY ISSP which is an International Student Support Program.

• Students have 24/7 access to a counsellor in over 200 languages.

• They can call or chat with a counsellor and it is 100% confidential.

• Students who wish to see a counsellor in person can do so with the help of ISSP. Appointments can be with a person who speaks the same language and are staggered so that no two students will ever run into one another.

• We have found great success with this program. Most of the calls to My ISSP are made after business hours of the college and over the weekend.

Mental Health First Aid Training

• All members of The Student Services Team receive off site Mental Health First Aid training.

• Course consists of an overview of common mental heal diagnosis and how to relate and work with students with these conditions.

• Provides information on crisis intervention and suicide prevention.

• Self care

Student to Achieve Optimal Mental Health

• While there can be a number of conditions that students can be diagnosed with, the important thing to remember is that everyone, regardless of the diagnosis can live a life with optimal mental health.

• The key is to educate, support, and provide students with the resources they need to reach this optimal health goal.

• At ICM we strive to make optimal mental health and self care part of everyday.

Questions, Comments, and Best Practices?

Let’s talk….