The doors outside of Thames Hall.
A fourth-years’ psychology project has now been implemented as a new student-led mental health program on campus — The Western Wellness Hub.
The hub was created in partnership with Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, which helps establish campus-based recovery colleges in Ontario. Recovery colleges aim to address mental health issues by teaching new well-being skills to participants through courses.
Alyssa Grant-Pereira brought the idea to campus in her fourth-year as a project for a community psychology course. She has since graduated with a degree in psychology. Grant-Pereira said the recovery college’s approach differs from other clinical methods as it focuses on learning tools to address mental health concerns instead of attempting to eliminate them.
“We can recover and thrive in the way that we are right now,” said Grant-Pereira. “You’re living with this idea and feeling this way, let’s figure out ways [to cope with mental health concerns] from other people who’ve felt anxious or overwhelmed or impostor syndrome, how do they tackle that?”
Amy Lee, who graduated from medical sciences last spring, studied and researched how to implement a recovery college at Western in her psychology course with Grant-Pereira. After connecting with Ontario Shores, they pitched the idea to the Western Health and Wellness Services and the program took off from there, according to Lee.
The Wellness Hub was created “for students, by students,” said Lee. A focus group of students was involved in selecting course offerings and two current students were brought on as facilitators to create course material and run sessions.
Fourth-year Ivey Business School student and Wellness Hub facilitator Kathryn Beri added that the program will fill a “gap” in Western’s current mental health resources by giving students the opportunity to seek help without necessarily being in an immediate crisis.
“Right now, there are a lot of crisis resources and a lot of daily wellness resources, but there’s nothing that’s in the middle when you need more assistance and more skills,” said Beri. “You don’t have to wait around forever until what you’re feeling does become a crisis.”
The hub’s first course, Navigating Change, is running from Jan. 24 to March 7, and will have six sessions exploring how to deal with the many changes university students face, both academically and in their personal lives.
Navigating Change will be held entirely online, while a second course, How to University 101, beginning Feb. 27, will be held in-person at Thames Hall.
Courses are designed collaboratively with healthcare professionals, facilitators and individuals with lived experience.
“It’s meant to cater to anybody,” Lee explained. “You don’t necessarily have to be going through anything to attend a recovering college. You can go to learn how to better support your friends or family or learn more about these issues and take the advice for yourself.”
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