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Five student deaths in 10 months: UOttawa faces mental health crisis
SHAAMINI YOGARETNAM
Updated: February 11, 2020
ottawacitizen.com
Five student deaths by suicide in just 10 months show the University of Ottawa and its students are grappling with a mental health crisis.
On Monday the university informed students of the weekend death of an unidentified student. By Tuesday afternoon, days before reading week when student stress is at a high, university president and vice-chancellor Jacques Frémont didn’t mince words at a press conference when he called the situation a “crisis” and pleaded with struggling students to seek support.
Frémont, in a statement Tuesday, said he grieves “side-by-side” with the “student’s family, friends, and loved ones, and to everyone who knew them.”
If you are having a difficult time and need to talk to someone, you can call the Distress Centre Ottawa at 613-238-3311
Frémont said the university would not be releasing information on the identity of the student or the student’s cause of death, but at the same time acknowledged that yet another student was recently reported missing to Gatineau police and has not yet been found.
Jonathan Blanchette has been missing since Thursday.
“If you have any information about Jonathan, I encourage you to contact the Gatineau police as soon as possible. We all hope that he is found alive and well very soon,” Frémont said.
Frémont pleaded with students to speak out if they are struggling, to check in with their peers who might be showing signs of distress and to use the mental health services on campus, which have been the subject of much scrutiny as the suicide toll continues to mount at the university.
“I know that at times this university can feel large and impersonal. But I want you to know that in reality it is filled with kind and caring people.”
The school has made “strides to try to meet the demand for the mental health services of our community,” he said.
A “campus action group” recently released several recommendations to improve health and wellness among students, staff and faculty. Many of those would be implemented in the “near future.”
More concretely, though, six additional mental health counsellors were hired to help the backlog of students waiting to get help. One was also hired for faculty and staff.
The university had already announced a task force on mental health, which will hold a town hall at the end of the month.
Frémont reiterated both his own and the university’s commitment to addressing student mental health needs “as comprehensively as possible on campus.”
But that commitment is continuing to sound like empty promises to a collective of students who are advocating for better mental health services on campus. The u0Collective 4 mental health has planned a sit-in outside of Frémont’s office for Wednesday morning to let the administration know they’ve had enough and to show solidarity with students who are struggling.
Nickolas Eburne, a second-year law student, said Monday’s announcement was déjà vu for the collective, whose members are struggling with anger and frustration and at the same time are just students trying to comfort other students.
Though there have been “baby steps” by the university, he’s looking for bigger change that would have bigger impacts on the lives – and hopefully fewer deaths – of students.
One such thing would be to have a mental health desk in every faculty instead of embedding it in the bureaucracy of the university’s larger health services.
Laura O’Connor, a member of the collective who works part-time for the university and is a third-year political science and communication student, says concerns have been brought forward to the administration but they’ve been ignored.
Part of what the university’s “campus action group” is asking for is a better student community, that can offer peer support. It’s a “cop-out answer”, says O’Connor and puts the work on the backs of students, some of whom are already trying as hard as they can to help their fellow students. Students should not be obligated to give up their time and risk their own wellness to keep their friends alive. “There is no substitution for proper mental health care, which is totally in the capacity of the university to provide.”
Indeed, the situation is dire and is a crisis, as the university has so rightly identified, the collective agrees. But the crisis is not one of students suffering and harming themselves in silence, O’Connor says. “The crisis is when (students identify themselves as needing help) they receive no institutional support, no professional help when they really are assuming that they will because it’s a genuine public health issue.”
SHAAMINI YOGARETNAM
Updated: February 11, 2020
Five student deaths in 10 months: UOttawa faces mental health crisis
Five student deaths by suicide in just 10 months shows the University of Ottawa and its students are grappling with a mental health crisis.
Five student deaths by suicide in just 10 months show the University of Ottawa and its students are grappling with a mental health crisis.
On Monday the university informed students of the weekend death of an unidentified student. By Tuesday afternoon, days before reading week when student stress is at a high, university president and vice-chancellor Jacques Frémont didn’t mince words at a press conference when he called the situation a “crisis” and pleaded with struggling students to seek support.
Frémont, in a statement Tuesday, said he grieves “side-by-side” with the “student’s family, friends, and loved ones, and to everyone who knew them.”
If you are having a difficult time and need to talk to someone, you can call the Distress Centre Ottawa at 613-238-3311
Frémont said the university would not be releasing information on the identity of the student or the student’s cause of death, but at the same time acknowledged that yet another student was recently reported missing to Gatineau police and has not yet been found.
Jonathan Blanchette has been missing since Thursday.
“If you have any information about Jonathan, I encourage you to contact the Gatineau police as soon as possible. We all hope that he is found alive and well very soon,” Frémont said.
Frémont pleaded with students to speak out if they are struggling, to check in with their peers who might be showing signs of distress and to use the mental health services on campus, which have been the subject of much scrutiny as the suicide toll continues to mount at the university.
“I know that at times this university can feel large and impersonal. But I want you to know that in reality it is filled with kind and caring people.”
The school has made “strides to try to meet the demand for the mental health services of our community,” he said.
A “campus action group” recently released several recommendations to improve health and wellness among students, staff and faculty. Many of those would be implemented in the “near future.”
More concretely, though, six additional mental health counsellors were hired to help the backlog of students waiting to get help. One was also hired for faculty and staff.
The university had already announced a task force on mental health, which will hold a town hall at the end of the month.
Frémont reiterated both his own and the university’s commitment to addressing student mental health needs “as comprehensively as possible on campus.”
But that commitment is continuing to sound like empty promises to a collective of students who are advocating for better mental health services on campus. The u0Collective 4 mental health has planned a sit-in outside of Frémont’s office for Wednesday morning to let the administration know they’ve had enough and to show solidarity with students who are struggling.
Nickolas Eburne, a second-year law student, said Monday’s announcement was déjà vu for the collective, whose members are struggling with anger and frustration and at the same time are just students trying to comfort other students.
Though there have been “baby steps” by the university, he’s looking for bigger change that would have bigger impacts on the lives – and hopefully fewer deaths – of students.
One such thing would be to have a mental health desk in every faculty instead of embedding it in the bureaucracy of the university’s larger health services.
Laura O’Connor, a member of the collective who works part-time for the university and is a third-year political science and communication student, says concerns have been brought forward to the administration but they’ve been ignored.
Part of what the university’s “campus action group” is asking for is a better student community, that can offer peer support. It’s a “cop-out answer”, says O’Connor and puts the work on the backs of students, some of whom are already trying as hard as they can to help their fellow students. Students should not be obligated to give up their time and risk their own wellness to keep their friends alive. “There is no substitution for proper mental health care, which is totally in the capacity of the university to provide.”
Indeed, the situation is dire and is a crisis, as the university has so rightly identified, the collective agrees. But the crisis is not one of students suffering and harming themselves in silence, O’Connor says. “The crisis is when (students identify themselves as needing help) they receive no institutional support, no professional help when they really are assuming that they will because it’s a genuine public health issue.”
