Supporting Student Mental Health in Ontario: Exploring Best Practices and Identifying Gaps

The Mental Health Commission of Canada released the National Standard of Canada for Mental Health and Well-Being for Post- Secondary Students (2020): a guiding institutional framework to inform the development of mental health strategy that is adaptable to individual contexts (MHCC, 2020). [...] • Work with community and health care partners to collect and use data to monitor mental health trends to inform decision-making and allocation of resources. [...] In 2020, the MHCC released the National Standard of Canada for Mental Health and Well-Being for Post- Secondary Students: a set of flexible guidelines for institutions that are designed to be 8 adaptable to their unique needs, circumstances and priorities, and can be used to inform an institution’s development of a mental health strategy (MHCC, 2020).1 Most government investment for campus mental. [...] To address the impacts of the pandemic, Ontario committed $7 million in February 2021 and another $2.39 million in May 2021 to increase the availability of PSE programs meant to support mental health supports for Black, Indigenous and francophone students. [...] In particular, government should work with CICMH to support the expansion of research, facilitation of intentional and strongly structured partnerships, and the development and dissemination of resources, such as toolkits and training modules, especially for smaller institutions.