Community of Practice | Priorities | Activities | Who is involved? | Join our community
Pursuing post-secondary education isn’t a simple experience. This major life transition may mean leaving home, learning how to live with others, building new support networks and finding a place in the world. The experiences can challenge well-being, but they also give opportunities to explore new ways to stay well on campus.
Healthy Minds/Healthy Campuses aims to improve overall mental health, reduce suicidal behaviour and reduce student substance use harms among students on BC campuses.
We use a Community of Practice approach to share and generate knowledge and promising practices. The community engages a broad cross-section of stakeholders at BC post-secondary institutions—from students to service providers to faculty and administrators—with a common goal of improving system responses. We achieve many of these goals by reviewing, developing and applying policies and standards. Healthy Minds/Healthy Campuses has established partnerships with 23 post secondary institutions in BC and over 27 other agencies or groups associated with this work
The lead partners for Healthy Minds/Healthy Campuses are the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) BC Division and the Centre for Addictions Research of BC. Healthy Minds/Healthy Campuses is managed and coordinated on behalf of the BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information by CMHA BC.
Community of Practice
A Community of Practice model supports informal networks coming together with a common interest to work collectively towards common action. The model emphasizes horizontal, peer-to-peer communication and information-sharing in contrast to top down approaches.
Healthy Minds/Healthy Campuses is here to facilitate and support your discussions, but we can’t have a community without community members! We invite everyone concerned about wellness on campus to join the discussion and share their expertise, build new relationships, gain support for their work and take leadership in their communities.
Priorities
Healthy Minds/Healthy Campuses serves as a site for communication towards action within and between post-secondary institutions in BC, their communities and researchers. The overall goal is to support students' mental health and reduce risky substance use.
Our priorities Include:
Staging a provincial conference to showcase leading edge practices for supporting student mental health and promoting healthy substance
Engaging campus administration in addressing mental health and substance use problems on campus at a systems level
Exploring opportunities for maximizing student voice and involvement in campus mental health promotion activities.
Maintaining an online space for campus community members to share initiatives and strategies used in the campus context
Supporting a Community of Practice approach to the support of mental health and promotion of healthier substance use on campus
Activities
Summit 2010 | Summit 2011 | Campus Capacity Grants
Highlighs of the year include:
Exploring Anxiety in Post-Secondary Contexts webinar in collaboration with AnxietyBC
UBC Healthy Minds Community Development Symposium for Students
Provincial Eating Disorders Awareness Week interview forum
Healthy Minds/Healthy Campuses Summit
Participation in campus webinars, workshops and presentations throughout the year
Development of a micro site to support Healthy Minds / Healthy Campuses work
Who is involved?
The project is led by the Canadian Mental Health Association's BC Division in collaboration with the BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information. It is funded by BC Mental Health and Addiction Services (an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority) and has also received project funding from the Vancouver Foundation and the BC Ministry of Health.
Post-secondary institutions: | |
| BC Institute of Technology | Capilano University |
| Douglas College | Kwantlen College |
| Simon Fraser University | Selkirk College |
| University of Victoria | Vancouver Island University |
| University of British Columbia | College of the Rockies |
| Vancouver Community College | Justice Institute of BC |
| Thompson Rivers University | St. Michaels University School |
| University of Northern British Columbia | University of Calgary |
| Camosun College | University of the Fraser Valley |
| Okanagan College | Digital Art School |
| Red Deer College | Ryerson University |
| Lakeland University | |
Other agencies and groups: | |
| Centre for Addictions Research of BC | BC Schizophrenia Society - Provincial |
| Interior Health Authority | Students for Mental Wellness (SFU) |
| Mood Disorders Association of BC | Bipolar Disorder Society of BC |
| Family Services of the North Shore | Kelty Mental Health |
| Post-Secondary Counsellors' Association | The FORCE Society for Kids' Mental Health |
| BC Psychologists' Association | BC Ministry of Children and Family Development |
| BC Campus | Nanaimo Child Development Centre |
| University of Victoria Mental Health Task Force | Northern Health Authority |
| BC Ministry of Health | Vancouver Island Health Authority |
| Alma Mater Society (UBC) | Nanaimo Youth Services Association |
| Stand Up For Mental Health | Vancouver Coastal Health Authority |
| Tobacco-Free Post Secondary Initiative | BCIT Student Association |
| Life Ring Secular Recovery | AnxietyBC |
| Survivor Advocates (BC) |
Join our community
We are keen to expand the reach of the project so that all post-secondary campuses in the province become involved. We are particularly interested in engaging a broad cross-section of campus community members including students, counsellors, staff and faculty to collaborate around campus mental health promotion. Campus representatives can decide how they would like to be involved, including participating in the online community, taking the lead on specific projects or helping to plan our annual conference.
For more information, email jonny.morris@cmha.bc.ca or call 1-800-555-8222.
