Mental Health and Well-being Strategic Plan

While one in five people may experience serious mental health distress, five of five of us are impacted. When students and employees enjoy flourishing mental health, they’re more likely to be successful in academic pursuits and engaged in their employment.

Georgian’s Mental Health and Well-being Strategic Plan reflects our institution’s commitment to all of our community members.

What is mental health? 

Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to their community.

What is well-being?

Well-being is defined not merely by the absence of disease, but a state of complete physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.

What is flourishing? 

Flourishing is defined as a state where people experience positive emotions, positive psychological functioning and positive social functioning, most of the time. It includes multiple components such as growth and resilience.

Georgian’s Mental Health and Well-being Strategic Plan is the result of more than a year of collaboration and innovation.

We undertook a robust environmental scan and a consultation phase with 42 points of engagement involving close to 800 students and employees across our campuses. With this input from our college community, we have identified five strategic pillars where we will focus our efforts to build a flourishing Georgian community.

Want to read the road map in detail, or access it with a screen reader? Check out the PDF.

Institutional Structure: Organizational Planning and Policy

Through meaningful collaboration, we will cultivate a culture of empathy, connection, respect and equity and infuse mental health and well-being into our DNA, institution wide.

Learn more about Georgian’s mental health and well-being DNA.

Mental Health Literacy and Promoting Well-being

Mental health awareness is a great first step. Georgian aims to move beyond awareness to mental health literacy so we can transform knowledge into action in order to benefit our own MHWB and that of others. Promoting holistic well-being increases skills and knowledge for practicing self-care and healthy behaviours.

Read more about mental health literacy.

Self Management and Coping Skills

Everyone brings strength, wisdom and resilience from their lived experiences. We will assist community members to increase adaptive coping skills through innovative program delivery.

Explore our goals for improving self management and coping.

Supports and Services

Mental health and well-being is everyone’s responsibility. When we treat ourselves and each other with compassion and understanding, we become part of Georgian’s growing support system which also includes online tools, workshops and counselling.

Discover how we are improving Georgian supports and services.

Crisis Management

Complicated situations, especially when there is an imminent risk of harm to self or others, require collaboration, multiple perspectives and a well co-ordinated response. We aim to help community members distinguish between distress and crisis and make it easy to refer students or employees to the help they need, quickly.

Get more information about our crisis management strategy.

Commitment: Georgian College prioritizes mental health and well-being through foundational organizational conditions.

• Incorporate mental health and well-being into Georgian’s college-wide strategic plan to infuse this into our culture, institution wide.
• Develop a mental health policy and related procedures that are consistent with diversity and equity guidelines, anti-oppressive, culturally relevant and respectful.
• Sign on to Okanagan Charter, An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges.
• Embed permanent roles, structures and resources needed to sustain annual strategic priorities and implementation.
• Enhance physical spaces through a lens of further promoting holistic well-being at all campuses.

Commitment: A holistic approach to promote mental health and well-being through opportunities that enhance mental health literacy for students and employees.

• Provide a variety of relevant learning opportunities to enhance mental health awareness and promote literacy.
• Use innovative, non-traditional communication methods to disseminate mental health and well-being information.
• Enhance partnerships to promote holistic mental health awareness, including physical, social, emotional and spiritual well-being, through events, activities and aligned communication each semester at all campuses.
• Partner with Wiidookdaading Indigenous Resource Centres and the Segal International Centre to provide meaningful, culturally relevant mental health initiatives and coordinated messages.

Commitment: Enhanced coping skills and strengthened support systems to build personal and community resilience.

• Develop and implement a mental health peer mentor program.
• Increase positive connection and communication with “constellation of supports” through online resources for family and other supporters.
• Identify and deliver evidence-based group programs, workshops and facilitated discussions that enhance personal, professional and Georgian community well-being.
• Provide opportunities for Georgian community members to understand the benefit of and participate in mindfulness.

Commitment: Georgian College community members have access to robust and varied services that support mental health and well-being.

• Build on Georgian’s Stepped Care Model to provide a co-ordinated service delivery system that best meets the mental health needs of our Georgian community.
• Communicate a pathway of services to ensure Georgian community members know how to access and make referrals to services.
• Determine ways to improve access to services through digital transformation.
• Enhance equitable employee access to mental health and well-being support.
• Advocate with external partners to enhance student access to collaborative medical and mental health care.

Commitment: The Georgian community supports life promotion and responds to urgent mental health situations quickly and appropriately.

• Increase awareness of protective factors that promote life, and risk factors for suicide.
• Enhance the capacity of Georgian community members to recognize and respond to risk factors and crisis situations.
• Co-ordinate and communicate existing structures that identify at-risk students and activate an early intervention support plan.

We care about your mental health and well-being and we are here to support you.

Please connect with us at mhwb@georgiancollege.ca