Petition for Increase in Mental Health Services at UofC
Board of Governors of the University of Calgary
The majority of students on University of Calgary campus suffer in a way that warrants seeking professional mental health services, "18% of [students] reported having been diagnosed or treated by a professional for a mental health condition, and 8% of students reported that they had seriously considered suicide."
Tragically, students have completed suicide on campus as well.
These gut-wrenching facts sit in the face of long wait times at our Wellness Centre, limited modalities for mental health treatment, short-term counselling treatment, and too few counsellors from marginalised backgrounds.
Most of these issues can be solved by the University of Calgary's increasing the amount of counsellors and implementing a mental health strategy that actually addresses the needs of marginalised groups on campus.
This billion dollar institution can afford to fund mental health services.
The University of Calgary has about $14.6 million in undesignated money sitting in the bank, according to their 2018 Comprehensive Institutional Plan (p. 27). Meanwhile, updates on the Mental Health Strategy show no significant increase in services.
Administrators will only listen if students organise and make our voices heard. Let's stand together and save lives!
Petition by
To:
Board of Governors of the University of Calgary
From:
[Your Name]
Statistics on the suffering from mental health concerns of the student population at the University of Calgary are alarming.
We are calling on the Board of Governors of the University of Calgary to take meaningful action in the form of direct, on-campus mental health services.
We call on the University of Calgary to resolve the shortage of counsellors and the resulting long wait times at the Wellness Centre by hiring more counsellors.
We call on the University of Calgary to ensure that these new counsellors come from a wide variety of backgrounds, emphasising marginalised backgrounds.
Further, we call on the University of Calgary to ensure that counsellors hired are trained in a wide variety of modalities, and that the Wellness Centre offer these different treatment options for students seeking help.
Short-term therapy is a needless barrier to comprehensive mental healthcare. Resources off-campus are often inaccessible. Long-term counselling must be offered on-campus.
The University of Calgary must ensure that these measures are implemented in a comprehensive manner, commensurate with the fiscal capacity of an institution as rich as this.