As a member of the VIU community you have the opportunity to support students who may be struggling with issues that affect their, mental health, academic success, and well-being. Counselling Services supports faculty and staff in a number of ways:
Orientation to counselling services
- Please feel welcome to share our brief video and website with your students to introduce them to Counselling Services
Consultation
- Contact us at 250 740-6416
- to discuss a concern about a particular student
- to debrief about any incidents with students involving mental health
Workshops for Faculty
Capacity to Connect: Supporting Students in Distress + Supporting Life: Suicide Awareness Workshop - 2 hr Combo!
Learn to recognized signs of distress, respond effectively and refer students to appropriate resources. We've combined our previous workshops addressing how to support distressed students and suicide awareness. Most faculty gave us the feedback that they wanted this single, more in-depth workshop.
More Feet On the Ground
Can't attend one of our Capacity to Connect workshops? Access this half-hour online workshop developed by the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health to learn how to recognize, respond and refer students experiencing mental health issues on campus. This is also a great refresher after taking one of our VIU workshops.
Wellbeing in Learning Environments
There is so much being done at VIU related to wellbeing, but we also wanted to share some excellent resources SFU has. Stay tuned for more.
- SFU Healthy campus learning environments - Various work done by different faculties, resource library
- 10 guidelines to build wellness in online classrooms
Requests for letters in support of students
Please review the Health and Wellness Centre's policy about requests for letters in support of students (eg. to accommodate extensions, proof of illness, etc.).
Conduct Issues: Student Behaviours that Disrupt the Learning Environment
Conduct issues may include yelling, inappropriate language, sending numerous emails or phone calls with inappropriate content, refusing to follow directions, threats, etc.
Please contact:
- Director Student Affairs 250-740-6406
- Office of Student Conduct Support 250-740-6594
- Director, International Student Services 250-740-6384
- Security 250-740-6600
- See Student Conduct for more information
- The Early Alert System
- Use if there is no immediate threat
- Can link student with useful resources to address their situation
- Does not go on any student record
- Collaborative Assessment Referral and Education Committee (CARE)
- Students may need extra support or intervention, this committee has representatives from across the campus
- Risk and Threat Assessment team
- For any safety concerns you may have
- Identify and Respond to Student Needs - Summary page of behaviours in students, appropriate responses & contacts at VIU
- Referring students in distress From BCIT recognizing distress, how to respond, refer & more resources for your classroom
Take a moment and read this wonderful article by Kathleen Bortolin on why we matter and how we can do better: University Affairs - I Matter Here. Maybe.
Workplace Strategies for Mental Health offers links to other resources and useful information such as Canada's legal requirements to support mental health.