Policy

Developed by The Healthy Minds Network, Active Minds, and the JED Foundation, this toolkit is designed for students and provides key data points, resources and tips to equip students with the needed tools to advocate for policies, systems, and environmental changes to improve mental health and well-being on their college campus.

Prepared by the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health (CICMH), the graduate student mental health toolkit is a guide to supporting students and is part of a province-wide effort to enhance student mental health by promoting positive mental health and well-being at post-secondary institutions. The toolkit aims to provide guidance on how to support graduate students, whether in need of mental health and addictions supports or not, and the suggestions provided are meant to enhance campus experiences for graduate students in the long term.

The Campus Equity Toolkit, developed by the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health and Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario provides a guide to supporting students and is part of a province-wide effort to enhance equity, by promoting positive mental health and well-being at postsecondary institutions. The toolkit has been reviewed and informed by diverse perspectives, including members of the Aboriginal Reference Group (Council of Ontario Universities) and Indigenous Peoples Education Circle (Colleges Ontario).

This Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses resource aims to assist campuses in implementing a health promotion approach to cannabis.

This webinar presented by CMHA provides an overview of the relationship between equity and mental health, highlighting the social determinants of health that most impact mental health. The objective of this webinar is to develop a stronger understanding of the interconnectedness of these factors, as well as support in developing policies to create greater equity in campus environments.

In the 2020 joint report, In It Together: Foundations for Promoting Mental Wellness in Campus Communities, Ontario’s Universities, Colleges Ontario, Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) and College Student Alliance (CSA) put forward their recommendations for helping meet the growing challenge of student mental health.

The fourth of a four-part series, this Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses resource outlines various regulatory and marketing measures to reduce the harms associated with substance use on post-secondary campuses. 

Peter Lake and Victor Schwartz, MD (Chief Medical Officer at The Jed Foundation), present on various topics including (a) privacy and confidentiality (including FERPA and medical records privacy), (b) disability law, (c) legal principles of delivering mental health services on campus, and (d) the potential liability of colleges and universities for student suicide and violence. Presenters also discuss how JED’s recommendations have shaped today’s mental health law, as well as future legislation that might impact campus mental health.

A new youth-led report released by Jack.org outlines how adult allies can better support and promote youth mental health across Canada.

The first of a four-part series, this resource by Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses outlines a potential framework to inform substance use policy on postsecondary campuses.

The second of a four-part series, this resource by Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses focuses on the role of community within a health promotion framework for campus substance use policies.

The third of a four-part series, this Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses resource explores how campus policies can attend to culture and health literacy to promote healthier substance use practices.

Published by the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), this policy paper discusses what mental health currently looks like on post-secondary campuses in Canada, and describes steps the federal government can take to improve the lives of those struggling.

The Equity in Mental Health Framework (EMH Framework), developed by The Jed Foundation (JED) and The Steve Fund, aims to help colleges and universities support and enhance the mental health of students of colour.

Not by degrees: Improving student mental health in the UK’s universities, a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research provides insight into the state of postsecondary student mental health in the UK.

Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health has released a major report that shows that while Australia provides world-class education and is an international leader in youth mental health, the mental health of university students has been largely ignored. Titled ‘Under the Radar: The mental health of Australian university students’, the report suggests a lack of government policy attention and resources directed to this issue has impacted on the capacity for both the university and the mental health sectors to effectively respond to the needs of this group.

The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) hosted the first Canadian Consensus Conference on the Mental Health of Emerging Adults: Making Transitions a Priority in Canada in 2015. This conference aimed to create an open dialogue and generate a broad consensus on the unique mental health needs of emerging adults. Facilitated by the MHCC Knowledge Exchange Centre, this conference brought together 200 emerging adults, their families and caregivers, service providers, and policymakers from across Canada to develop a consensus statement with recommendations to advance policy and services for emerging adults in Canada.

This online, interactive inventory is designed to help colleges, institutes, and universities self-evaluate and plan action systemically supporting mental health on campus.

Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, Mental Health Innovation Fund, OCAD University and Ryerson University conducted a scan of current policy approaches to post-secondary student mental health with a special focus on postsecondary mental health policy development, service and system design approaches to student-centered care, and the application of design and visual thinking to campus mental health.

OCAD University and Ryerson University have embarked on a creative partnership together, collaborating around the development of best practices in campus mental health strategy. OCAD U is using design thinking as a participatory process to gather input and to understand students’ experiences with mental health on campus in order to inform the mental health strategy. OCAD U is also using art as a community engagement tool to raise awareness about mental health and to reduce stigma on campus.

he Balancing Safety and Support on Campus: A Guide for Campus Teams, was developed by the Higher Education Mental Health Alliance (HEMHA) and led by The Jed Foundation. The aim of the project was to develop a resource that would help both existing and new teams make informed decisions about their structure, scope, functions, and day-to-day operations.