What is the issue?

Acquiring a post-secondary education is exciting, transformative, but also challenging. The majority of students must juggle academic, financial, and personal demands on a day to day basis.

In that context, an increasing number of post-secondary students are experiencing mental health problems. In fact, 75% of first-time mental health diagnoses occur between the ages of 16 and 25.

What are we doing?

The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) is embarking on a two-year project to develop a National Standard on Psychological Health and Safety for post-secondary students. Like the Standard developed for the workplace https://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/what-we-do/workplace/national-standard , it will act as a voluntary guideline to help Canada’s academic institutions protect and promote students’ psychological health and safety, and support students’ success.

As one of the project key steps, a literature review was undertaken by Dr. Heather Stuart and her team at Queen’s University. This work shares information on emerging and promising practices related to psychological health and safety of post-secondary students. A summary is available and you can access the full report by sending an email to studentstandard@mentalhealthcommission.ca

The MHCC is working collaboratively with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Group, as the standards development organization, towards the development of the Standard. Funding is being provided from Bell Let’s Talk, The Rossy Family Foundation, RBC Foundation and Health Canada.

Consultations will begin to take place across Canada in the fall of 2018. A broad audience from students, family members, post-secondary organizations and faculty will be called upon to give discuss existing challenges and potential opportunities. To learn more:

Read: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ )
Email us:  studentstandard@mentalhealthcommission.ca
View: our Today’s Students – Tomorrow’s Workforce! webinar
Find us: at these events

To share this project with your colleagues and other stakeholders, download, email or print our information sheet: https://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/sites/default/files/downloads/post_secondary_student_standard_one_pager_eng.pdf

Source: Mental Health Commission of Canada: https://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/post-secondary-students-standard