Mental Health Feedback Events: This is what we heard: did we miss anything?

Since September, I’ve led the Innovation Hub team working to gather student insights about mental health in partnership with the Presidential and Provostial Task Force on Student Mental Health. I’d like to personally thank everyone who came to our events in September and provided us with your thoughts. We appreciate you. We heard you and your voices matter.

Through these conversations and the many consultations and listening sessions conducted directly by the Task Force, a great deal of data has been collected from students, staff, and faculty, and much has been learned. At the same time, we have seen much concern and activism in support of student mental health, and we understand how deeply students care about this issue.

I am excited to announce that the Innovation Hub, in partnership with the Task Force, will be holding five events across our three campuses to share draft themes. These events are part of phase 3 of the Task Force outreach and engagement plan.

During these events, students, faculty, and staff are invited to comment and provide feedback about these draft themes. The goal for this round of feedback is to determine whether the themes accurately reflect the perspectives of our community and to ask the question: did we miss anything?

The draft themes document is available for review at uoft.me/mentalhealth and will also be available in paper copy at the events. Feedback will be collected during the event, and there is also an opportunity to provide online feedback. During the events, community members can also create and share affirmation cards and make buttons in support of student mental health.

We look forward to seeing you at one of the upcoming events:

We believe that now is the time to re-frame the mental health conversation on campus into a dialogue between all parties. Community feedback on the draft themes will inform the Task Force’s report and recommendations for the President and Provost in December, 2019. Together, we can move forward to create positive change on campus in support of student mental health.