Background: BCcampus Mental Health and Wellness Projects
Starting a Conversation About Mental Health was developed as part of the BCcampus Mental Health and Wellness Projects and funded by the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills. BCcampus worked closely with many counsellors, students, and subject matter experts across the B.C. post-secondary system to develop open education resources (OER) focusing on foundational mental health training and suicide awareness for faculty, staff, and students. The resources are available on the BCcampus Mental Health and Wellness website.
Below is an overview of the different mental health and wellness training resources available through BCcampus.
| Resource Name | Delivery | Audience | Length | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity to Connect: Supporting Students’ Mental Health and Wellness (for Faculty and Staff) |
Self-paced, online, non-facilitated | Faculty and staff | 60 minutes | This self-paced course provides foundational mental health and wellness information. The course also covers ways that faculty and staff can support students who are experiencing distress. |
| Starting a Conversation About Mental Health (for Students) |
Self-paced, online, non-facilitated | Post-secondary students | 60 minutes | This self-paced course provides foundational mental health and wellness information. The course also covers ways that post-secondary students can support peers who are experiencing distress. |
| Resource Name | Delivery | Audience | Length | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting a Conversation About Mental Health: Foundational Training for Students (Facilitator’s Guide for Use with Students) |
Facilitated course for face-to-face or online delivery (via Zoom or a similar platform) | Post-secondary students | 2+ hours | This adaptable resource provides foundational mental health and wellness information for post-secondary students. It also covers how post-secondary students can respond to peers who are experiencing distress. Resources include a facilitator’s guide, slides, and handouts. |
| Starting a Conversation About Suicide (Facilitator’s Guide for Use with Students) |
Facilitated course for face-to-face or online delivery (via Zoom or a similar platform) | Post-secondary students | 2+ hours | This adaptable resource provides sensitive, respectful, and detailed training on suicide awareness and response. It covers how to recognize if a student is considering suicide, how to respond in non-judgmental way, and how to refer the student to appropriate resources. Resources include a facilitator’s guide, slides, and handouts. |
| Resource Name | Delivery | Audience | Length | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity to Connect: Supporting Students’ Mental Health and Wellness (Facilitator’s Guide for Use with Faculty and staff) |
Facilitated course for face-to-face or online delivery (via Zoom or a similar platform) | Faculty and staff | 2+ hours | This adaptable resource provides foundational mental health and wellness information for faculty and staff. It also covers how to support students who are experiencing distress. Resources include a facilitator’s guide, slides, and handouts. |
| Let’s Talk About Suicide: Raising Awareness and Supporting Students (Facilitator’s Guide for Use with Faculty and Staff) |
Facilitated course for face-to-face or online delivery (via Zoom or a similar platform) | Faculty and staff | 2+ hours | This adaptable resource offers sensitive, respectful, and detailed training on suicide awareness and response. It covers how to recognize if a student is considering suicide, how to respond in non-judgmental way, and how to refer the student to appropriate resources. Resources include a facilitator’s guide, slides, and handouts. |
| Resource Name | Delivery | Audience | Length | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nanihtsulyaz ‘int’en (Do things gently) ʔes zuminstwáx kt (We take care of one another) | Graphic booklet | Faculty, staff, and students | 30 minutes | This illustrated booklet shows the holistic ways that Indigenous Elders support student mental health and wellness in the B.C. post-secondary system. It includes quotes from Elders and reflection questions to help readers think about the many ways that Elders’ presence, knowledge, and wisdom enrich the learning environment. |
Open Education Resources
The BCcampus Mental Health and Wellness resources are open education resources (OERs), meaning they have an open-copyright licence (such as one from Creative Commons) or they are part of the public domain and have no copyright. Depending on the licence used, OERs can be freely accessed, used, re-mixed, improved, and shared. For example, institutions may want to:
- Provide information and contacts for specific services available on campus and in the community
- Use images from the institution’s campuses and local community
- Use the institution’s logo
- Support Indigenization by incorporating additional Indigenous content and approaches
- Translate this course into different languages
Ideas and suggestions for adapting and reusing the course material are provided in the next section.