As a key component of the university’s Student Mental Health Strategy, new training opportunities on student mental health are being offered through the UVic Student Mental Health Literacy Program (SMHLP) for faculty, sessional instructors, teaching assistants, and staff. The program will provide faculty and staff with dedicated training on key areas in support of student mental health such as how to:
- recognize early warning signs for students experiencing difficulties;
- recognize when a student may be in distress;
- support and refer students who are at-risk or in distress; and
- refer students in distress or in crisis to campus resources.
Mental health literacy training will be provided in three levels:
- Level one will provide participants with basic training in mental health awareness and response and ensure faculty and staff have the information they need to consistently and effectively identify, respond to and refer a student to appropriate resources.
- Level two will provide more detailed information, tools, scenarios and case studies and will be geared to groups of faculty and staff who more frequently respond to students in distress.
- Level three will provide advance training in mental health concerns for selected groups of faculty and staff who work in areas that regularly respond to students in distress including training on supporting students in crisis, emergency protocols, and suicide intervention.
The mental health literacy training program supports faculty and staff in assisting students with mental health concerns earlier so that students will have better opportunities to be successful and thrive personally and academically.