1. Mission Statement

Recommendations

• Your institute’s mission statement is a description of what are the most important values of your campus community. These values steer the campus towards a purpose. Incorporate the importance of student mental health, as a foundation of learning and optimal performance in your institute’s mission statement.
• Translate the mission statement into goals. Seek consensus by engaging campus community to align goals — logically and logistically — with the current reality, resources and expectations of the campus community.

Potential Outcomes

• Number of ways the mission statement is articulated, communicated, understood, embedded and highlighted across campus, especially in events and experiences directly involving students.
• Number of concrete ways campus community contributes, within their own roles and responsibilities, towards aligning specific goals with the mission statement.

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2. Strategic Goals

Recommendations

• Align strategic goals with the mission statement. These strategic goals are often articulated in campus’ mental health strategy. Much like the mission statement, determine how well the mental health strategy of your campus is broadly understood by administration, faculty, staff and students.
• Assess the mental health concerns and needs of student in a systemic and comprehensive manner. Strategic goals need to be addressing these concerns and needs.
• Create a visual map for each strategic goal using a standard Inventory such as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) goal. Anticipate potential barriers and outline in your strategic goals, in advance, ways of overcoming these barriers.
• Incorporate strategic goals related to student mental health in your institutions’ future planning. For example, strive to have a decrease of 3% in number of students who drop out or are in academic jeopardy, (e.g., academic probation or suspension) primarily due to mental health challenges. Similarly, campuses can also aspire to have a measurable increase in number of students flourishing, as determined by valid and reliable assessment criteria.

Potential Outcomes

• A decrease (e.g., 3%) in number of students reporting a diagnosable psychiatric disorder over a period of 3 years, assessed by the National College Health Assessment (NCHA), also administered every three years. Relatedly, a decrease in number of students placed on probation or suspended primarily due to mental health challenges.
• An increase in the number of students reporting to be flourishing (e.g., absence of mental illness and presence of well-being) and strategic targets to increase levels of flourishing (e.g., 5% increase in number of students reporting in the flourishing range), assessed by a standardized measured, administered through the NCHA.
• Amount saved when investing financial resources in prevention of mental health concerns.
• Increase in graduation rate of students with mental health concerns.

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3. Senior Administration

Recommendations

• Have a student services professional in senior administration who is capable of viewing campus mental health from systemic and strategic perspectives and has excellent organizational skills to executive strategic goals related to campus mental health.
• Senior administration needs to involve key stakeholders to execute strategic goals and concrete steps related to mental health.
• Senior management needs to actively and continuously stay abreast of the execution and implementation of policies and evaluates their impact on campus mental health.

Potential Outcomes

• Active participation of a senior administrator on a campus-wide mental health committee, task force or group; active participation entails regular attendance, leading or supporting a mental health initiative on campus.
• Number of strategic goals accomplished that were championed or actively led by a member of senior administration.
• Continuous assessment to determine outcome of mental health initiatives.

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4. PolicIes & Planning:

Recommendations

• Operationalize policies related to mental health into specific objectives; break down each objective into attainable steps within a specific timeframe; evaluate effectiveness of each objective.
• Evaluate the impact of mental health and well-being policies at your campus (e.g., policies related to academics, safety, campus planning, studies affairs, human resources).
• Align your campus mental health policy with the policies of other departments – e.g., psychology, art & science, biological science.

Potential Outcomes

• Number of active working groups with specific objectives related to mental health policy
• Number of times mental health policy had a direct impact on academic success of a student
• Objectively measurable indicators of implementation of a policy using a standardized tool such as Keys to Success in Ontario
• Change in rate of psychopathology reported by students on national standardized measures such as National College Health Assessment (NCHA)
• Change in various indicators of student engagement on standardized measures such as National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), if administered by the institution

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5. Faculty & Staff Engagement:

Recommendations

• Encourage faculty and staff to collaborate in devising, revising and implementing policies regarding student mental health.
• Celebrate and recognize champions of student mental health including faculty, staff, students, and community members.

Potential Outcomes

• Number of explicit measures taken by the faculty such as extra credit assignments, deferring exams, supplemental exams
• Number of active and functional committees, groups or task forces that include faculty, staff and students, focused on mental health and related issues
• Student to Faculty/Staff ratio in committee/groups mentioned above
• Measurement of the positive impact of accommodations offered by faculty in supporting student mental health, by surveying students
• Change in scores on student and faculty/staff interaction and engagement on a standardized measure such NESSE‘s index on Quality of Relationships.
• Number of awards and formal ways of recognising champions of student mental health
• Number of events organized on campus to honour students, faculty, staff and community members who have championed various mental health causes through public campaigns and causes.

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6. Students’ Perspective :

Recommendations

• Include students’ perspective in policy and planning regarding student mental health by connecting with student groups including student union/governance
• Find ways to inspire students to find a meaningful role in devising institutional policies and decision-making.

Potential Outcomes

• Number of students playing an active role in committees, groups and task forces focused on policy and planning regarding student mental health
• Number of students who have shared their lived experiences with mental health struggles
• Number of student clubs and organizations on campus which offer various ways to support student mental health.

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7. Policy into Actions:

Recommendations

• Establish clear guidelines regarding broader policies that can guide campus community to apply standards, recommendations and rules based on best available practices.
• Design mental health initiatives with clear goals in mind – i.e., what exactly needs to change and how the proposed policy will change that.
• Anticipate potential barriers that can slow or impede policy implementation and set realistic and flexible goals keeping these barriers in mind
• Identify existing practices, which through concrete actions, support mental health of students and whether these practices are a result of policy directives on your campus.
• Evaluate their impact and identify next targets.

Potential Outcomes

• Number of students with mental health issues, supported through policy mandated practices
• Number of students reporting to be functioning in the flourishing range—defined as the absence of psychological symptoms and the presence of higher levels of well-being
• Effectiveness of mental health initiatives, evaluated by valid and reliable measures of mental health stigma, qualitative and quantitative feedback measures
• Increase in level of student satisfaction as measured through anonymous surveys
• Increased rate of retention.

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8. Equity & Diversity:

Recommendations

• Design mental health policies that are culturally responsive and respectful, ensuring that students from a range of under-represented have equal and inclusive access to campus life.
• Engage students from diverse cultures, through creative, sophisticated and evidence-based programming that goes beyond the customarily celebration of cultural festivities (e.g., lighting at Dewali, Ramadan dinner, Festive Lanterns to celebrate the Chinese New Year or burning sage to commence and event) to help them form a mature, evolved and comfortable sense of identity.
• Provide ongoing mental health support for students from diverse background to eliminate or minimize the institutional and attitudinal barriers as they make progress on academic, social and career paths.

Potential Outcomes

• Number of students from diverse cultural background, actively working with staff and faculty in drafting, auditing, and refining mental health policies and strategies.
• Number of hours of intermediate and advanced level competency building training for staff and student leaders focused at increasing knowledge, understanding and appreciation towards a mature, evolved and comfortable sense of identity of all student in general, and students from diverse backgrounds in particular.
• Number of institutional and attitudinal barriers identified by students through standardized measures administered anonymously
• Number of ways identified, and implemented by campus administration to overcome aforementioned barriers
• Presence of a functional Diversity & Equity office on campus which supports recommendations and outcomes aforementioned and ensures that mental health policies are consistent with diversity and equity guidelines.

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9. Resource Allocation:

Recommendations

• Allocate resources for targeted intervention for at risk students, in line with research findings that certain student groups entering post-secondary education with existing mental health concerns - – i.e., students from marginalized and racial backgrounds such as LGBTQS, First Generation, recent immigrants, students from Indigenous backgrounds – benefit from targeted interventions.
• Integrate data from various offices and sources (e.g., NCHA, NESSE, about students with mental health issues, their use of student services, their graduation and dropout rates to inform your campus about the importance of allocating specific and substantial resources to assess and intervene early.
• Allocate resources for targeted intervention for at risk students, in line with research findings that certain student groups entering post-secondary education with existing mental health concerns - – i.e., students from marginalized and racial backgrounds such as LGBTQS, First Generation, recent immigrants, students from Indigenous backgrounds – benefit from targeted interventions.

Potential Outcomes

• Total amount of time, priority and human resources allocated to Mental Health initiatives, activities, and projects.
• Number of staff members exclusively working on mental health initiatives
• Number of staff members supporting mental health initiatives
• Number of concrete resources secured (physical and virtual space, furniture, software, training, events organized).

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10. Role Assignment :

Recommendations

• Assign specific role among staff and faculty to support student mental health, based on their experience, education, training and overall “fit.”
• Assign a role to a professional who is well aware of campus wide initiatives focused on student mental health and well-being. This role is critical in coordinating services and ensuring that resources are utilized efficiently.

Potential Outcomes

• Number of staff exclusively assigned to carry out specific as well as general tasks to support student mental health and well-being on campus.
• Number of staff and faculty in various services and departments whose primary job is not student mental health but their expertise supplements student mental health.
• Number of professional development opportunities provided to staff and faculty at your campus to enhance their skillset in a specific area and/or expand their role in light of emerging lines of research on mental health needs of young adults.