Taking care of your mental health is not new. In 1964, UM was hosting lectures on student mental health in its Libraries. Since then, dedicated experts at UM have developed a series of roadmaps that have brought us to today, where Maclean’s magazine ranked UM second in mental health services among Canadian medical-doctoral universities in 2022.

Here’s a quick list of what we offer and do.

1. Opened in September 2023, the Student Wellness Centre on the Fort Garry campus is a new hub for students looking for mental health and wellness services, including professional consultation and peer support to help students learn skills to actively maintain their wellbeing throughout their time in university.                 
2. Open all year, the Student Counselling Centre provides free workshops and counselling (for individuals or groups) and mental health support to University of Manitoba, English Language Centre, and International College of Manitoba students.
3. Maybe you want a less formal approach. We’ll meet you where you are. Healthy U is a peer support group of highly-trained student health educators. You could even sign-up to become one.
4. There is also all the support and cultural programming available through Migizii Agamik—Bald Eagle Lodge, including weekly sharing circles with Elders in Residence. 
5. The Spiritual Care and Multi-Faith Centre supports students as they navigate through the highs and lows of academic life, helping to piece together and make sense of the troubling, confusing, and exciting parts that make up their lives. Spiritual health services are available to all, whether you identify as spiritual, atheist, religious or agnostic.
6. The Spiritual Care and Multi-Faith Centre and the Student Counselling Centre have collaborated to offer a new group this fall: Understanding and Healing from the Soul Wounds of Racialized Trauma.
7. Love needs to be nurtured. UM offers couples counselling, even if the partner is outside of the UM community. UM wants you to love your studies, and your partner.
8. Probably everyone at some point dreams about being a famed musician, but in reality, performing is tough. That’s why Desautels Faculty of Music pioneered the “Wellness in Music” series specifically for these students and their needs. The faculty embeds a mental health counsellor and every year, offers workshops like this one on food, and another one on finding balance. It’s just one story from one Faculty, but it shows how this university is meeting students where they need to be met.
9. Just because you’ve graduated, doesn’t mean we stop caring about your wellbeing. Take the Faculty of Law: not only does it have in-house mental health counsellors, but it also runs alumni supports. And it has recently developed this innovative course looking at mental health issues and the law.
10. In 2014, UM launched its mental health strategy, which in the following years impacted our community immensely. Read about current initiatives and priorities.
11. The Learning Disability Service Clinic provides assessments for learning disabilities related to reading, writing, and math as well as attention related problems to University of Manitoba students.
12. Researchers at UM are looking at mental health issues from a variety of angles too, from the mental health of First Nations children to Adult Manitobans and children, in general.
13. Other UM researchers have looked at where resources are needed and used to understand how poverty impacts mental health and care, and how we can help adults connect.
14. UM is also where our researchers were some of the first to study mental health effects of COVID-19 later going on to call for a mental health vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic.
15. Every year UM takes part in Bell Let’s Talk Day to encourage discussion, reflection, and well-being.

This is just a quick list of 15 ways UM supports students and Manitobans’ mental health because as President and Vice-Chancellor Michael Benarroch reminds us, “UM is a community that exists to help one another thrive.”

“There have been several instances when the university community has been impacted by large-scale incidents of white supremacy,” says Edgar French, Spiritual Care Coordinator. “As a spiritual care provider who works with many new-comer students, members of the BIPOC community and faith groups mostly comprised of racialized folk, I always sensed there was something missing as it relates to our supports here at the university.”

The Spiritual Care and Multi-Faith Centre and the Student Counselling Centre are collaborating to offer a new group this fall: Understanding and Healing from the Soul Wounds of Racialized Trauma.

Students identifying as Indigenous or Bodies of Culture* are invited to join. This group will focus on understanding the impacts of racialized trauma, recognizing how racialized trauma may be present in the body, as well as individual and community healing strategies. Specifically exploring the healing component, the content will revolve around active body processes and processing feelings that arise in response to racialized trauma.

This group will run every Tuesday (1:00 – 2:15 PM) from October 17 to November 17, 2023. Each session in this 4-week group will deliver 75 minutes of content from the facilitators and 15 minutes to hold space for student support if needed.  

Michelle Pearson, Counsellor at the Student Counselling Centre, also speaks to this opportunity to expand in student support offerings:

“In my work at the Student Counselling Centre, I’ve worked with many BIBOC students who have experienced trauma personally or were impacted by intergenerational, institutional or historical trauma. They’ve asked for support around racialized trauma, racial stress and distress, microaggressions and racism on campus.”

“There is much by way of cognitive content and education in the areas of systemic racism, societal ills, generational trauma and more, but not much in terms of helping racialized folk deal with racism in their daily lives,” French adds.

While Pearson’s work in trauma-informed care has certainly provided effective interventions, students continue to experience difficulties that are somatic in nature, as in their trauma is felt in their body as panic, stomach aches and chronic pain. After pursuing training that specifically delves into this matter, Pearson is ecstatic to bring it to life in this group by using the healing principles of somatic abolitionism to help students heal from the impact of racialized trauma and build resiliency within their communities.

Both French and Pearson have a wide range of training, expertise and personal experiences that translates well into offering support for racialized trauma. Having learned from other professionals in their fields and even other students they have worked with at UM, they are excited to provide the physical and emotional space that will contribute to UM’s active mission to improve supports for its diverse community. 

For more information on the workshop or to register, contact spiritualcare@umanitoba.ca . Registration deadline: Friday, October 13.

*American Anti-Racist therapist, educator, and activist, Resmaa Menakem coined the term “Bodies of Culture” to expand the meaning of the popular category, ‘people of colour.’ Menakem indicates he prefers this term as it takes the focus off skin color and onto culture. Defining people as bodies firmly grounds our human experiences, including racism, in the physical realm which in our society we often overlook. Furthermore, it serves to displace other terms that make white bodies the norm.

BIBOC stands for Black, Indigenous, Body of Culture. BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Pronounced “bye-pock,” this is a term specific to the United States, intended to centre the experiences of Black and Indigenous groups and demonstrate solidarity between communities of color.

Student Services at Bannatyne Campus

Student Services at Bannatyne Campus (SSBC) is the service hub for supports and referrals directed to students at the Bannatyne Campus. Working closely with each person, they develop individualized plans to connect you to the support and resources you need on and off campus.

Bannatyne campus – Brodie atrium

Their commitment to supporting personal wellness and academic success is rooted in providing comprehensive support to all Bannatyne students despite many student supports being based at the Fort Garry Campus. You can connect with SSBC through one-on-one appointments, but different levels of engagement are also available through groups and workshops, and self-directed programming depending on your needs.

SSBC operates separately from all academic and administrative units, therefore you can feel assured that you’re  accessing confidential services where your privacy is the greatest priority.

Contact SSBC at (204) 272-3190 or by email at bcstudentservices [at] umanitoba [dot] ca to schedule an appointment today.

Spiritual Care and Multi-Faith Centre

 The university experience is a significant transition in a person’s life and spiritual wellness can be essential to this process. UM’s Spiritual Care and Multi-Faith Centre can support you as you continue to grow and develop your framework of beliefs. Their support is available to you, whether you identify as spiritual, religious, atheist or agnostic. Your values are valid and affirmed regardless of your background and they provide care tailored to you.

The centre offers one-on-one confidential support to students with spiritual care providers from a variety of traditions not only related to religion, but also to philosophy and world view. Students have opportunities to connect with chaplains, Indigenous Elders and active faith groups.

The Spiritual Care and Multi-Faith Centre also delivers workshops and programming that revolve around spiritual health and wellness education, especially through the lens of current events and challenges around the world. They recognize that intergroup and interfaith dialogue is at the heart of equipping people to cope with their own challenges while respectfully engaging with others of different beliefs and values.

Wisdom Wednesdays, an interfaith speakers’ series, welcomed members of the UM community to pause and reflect on different topics then looked ahead to diverse ways of responding to these topics. You can access these recordings on the Spiritual Care website.

To access direct support from Spiritual Care, request an intake appointment by contacting the office by email: spiritualcare@umanitoba.ca or phone: 204-474-8721. You can also visit their new location on the fifth floor of UMSU University Centre.