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Mental Health at McMaster

McMaster Okanagan Office of Health & Well-being

Mental Health & Well-being Task Force

The Okanagan Mental Health Task Force was inspired by the mission of the Okanagan Charter and was developed to identify the key mental health and well-being issues affecting faculty, staff and students at McMaster.

The taskforce suggested that McMaster University aspire to be:

A psychologically healthy, inclusive, accessible university which promotes and supports the mental health and well-being of every student, staff and faculty member in all of its activities and creates conditions for all to flourish.

To view the immediate & short term recommendations:

Click Here

Overview

The McMaster Okanagan Mental Health & Well-being Task Force was formed at the request of McMaster’s Provost Dr. Susan Tighe, in response to the challenges faced by the university during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the direction and guidance of Dr. Catharine Munn, the leader behind the Professor Hippo-on-Campus program, the task force worked to provide short and long-term recommendations to the university around mental health education, programming, and policies affecting McMaster’s staff, students and faculty. Read Dr. David Clark, a committee member’s provocative piece on the distress faced by education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic and demand to reimagine university campuses , “Abolish the University: Build the Sanctuary Campus”.

The overarching, guiding recommendations of the task force intend to help and inspire campus leaders to:

  1. Improve institutional planning, decision-making and implementation related to mental health and well-being programming, policies, and processes and ensure meaningful engagement of members of equity-deserving groups throughout. Inclusion of persons with lived experience of mental health and substance use disorders and inter-sectionalities, and representatives from relevant student, staff and faculty sub-groups is essential.
  2. Create and promote more inclusive and psychologically healthy learning and working environments and cultures and ensure that threats to inclusion and psychological health and safety (i.e., mistreatment, discrimination, harassment) are identified and addressed early and systematically.
  3. Improve navigation and access to compassionate, safe, timely, inclusive, stepped, and effective peer and professional mental health supports (staff, faculty and students) and services (primarily students) which meets the needs of students, staff and faculty, including in urgent and emergency situations.
  4. Create and/or increase availability and access to relevant, evidence-informed promotional, preventive, and educational mental health and well-being activities and offerings appropriate to the university context and specific to the needs of students, faculty, and staff.
  5. Increase our campus-wide capacity to address and improve the mental health and well-being of students, faculty and staff through improved collaboration and use of best available evidence and practices. This requires improved campus-wide communication, navigation, coordination, planning, evaluation, research, and knowledge translation.

Mental Health and Well-Being Key Terms:

Bullying: ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening.

Burnout: a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed (Reference: World Health Organization). Burnout is characterized by three main dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism (less identification with the job), and feelings of reduced ability or effectiveness.

Harassment: a form of discrimination including any unwanted physical or verbal behaviour that offends or humiliates you. Generally, harassment is a behaviour that persists over time.

Mental health: a state of well-being in which the individual realizes their own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to their community. (Reference: World Health Organization).

Mistreatment: intentional or unintentional, disrespectful treatment of an individual (or group) that has or may have the effect of creating an intimidating, humiliating, hostile or offensive work or learning environment for the individual in that circumstance. Examples of mistreatment include sexual harassment; discrimination or harassment based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation; humiliation, psychological or physical punishment; and the use of grading and other forms of assessment in a punitive manner.

Organizational compassion: members of a system collectively notice, feel and respond to pain experienced by members of that system.

Organizational trust: the expectation within an organization that an individual is willing to allow themselves to be vulnerable and can expect the organization to be trustworthy.

Psychological contract: an individual belief in a reciprocal obligation between the individual and the organization

Psychological safety: participants in a workplace (or educational environment) are confident that if they ask for help, seek feedback, admit errors or a lack of knowledge, try something new or raise ideas, questions, suggestions or work-related concerns, they will not be exposed to punishment, humiliation or interpersonal or social threats to their self or identity, their status or standing and to their career or employment.

Psychologically healthy and safe workplace: a workplace that promotes workers’ psychological well-being and actively works to prevent harm to worker psychological health including intelligent, reckless, or intentional ways. (Reference: Guarding Minds@Work)

Well-being: the state of being comfortable, happy or healthy.

Wellness: the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of a deliberate effort.

Are you or do you know a mental health champion? Have you developed or are you part of of a program, initiative or group that addresses mental health at McMaster University? Are you conducting research into campus / post secondary mental health? 

We want to hear from you. 

Tell Us More

Oversight & Planning Committee

An oversight committee consisting of senior leaders, chaired by Dr. Munn focused on addressing key issues in relation to institutional planning, structures and budgets. Two sub-committees comprised of students, faculty, and staff members with expertise and lived experience and/or interest in mental health and well-being reported into the oversight committee. One sub-committee worked on the issues arising from workplace and academic environments while the other identified the types of programs and services needed to promote mental health and well-being resources on campus.

People Listing

DDV

Denver Della-Vedova

President & CEO, McMaster Students Union

Sean Van Koughnett

Associate Vice-President (Students and Learning), Dean of Students

lynn

Lynn Armstrong

Administrator, McMaster Okanagan Committee

1 (905) 525-9140
Walton

Mark Walton

Vice-Dean, Faculty Affairs

cm

Catharine Munn (Chair)

Advisor to the Provost and Vice-President (Academic), Special Projects (Mental Health)

Sandra Moll

Associate Professor, School of Rehabilitation Science (Occupational Therapy)

McKenna

Wanda McKenna

Associate Vice-President and Chief Human Resources Officer

mk

Nick Kates

Chair, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences

Gayleen Gray

Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer

Arig Al Shaibah

Associate Vice-President, Equity and Inclusion

Dej

Kim Dej

Acting Vice-Provost

1 (905) 525-9140

Are you or do you know a mental health champion? Have you developed or are you part of of a program, initiative or group that addresses mental health at McMaster University? Are you conducting research into campus / post secondary mental health? 

We want to hear from you. 

Tell Us More

Education & Promotion

Information Box Group

lynn

Lynn Armstrong

Administrator, McMaster Okanagan Committee

1 (905) 525-9140

Jill Axisa

Director, Faculty Leadership and Development

Bargeman

Maria Bargeman

PhD Candidate, Nurse

1 (905) 525-9140
Blakeborough

Connor Blakeborough

Health Promotor, Student Wellness Centre

1 (905) 525-9140
Carter

Lorraine Carter

Director, McMaster Continuing Education

1 (905) 525-9140
Chan

Dr. Teresa Chan

Assistant Dean, Program for Faculty Development Associate Professor, Medicine

1 (905) 525-9140
Cole

Andrea Cole

Coordinator, Graduate Student Recruitment, Retention & Diversity

1 (905) 525-9140
shylo

Shylo Elmayan

Director, Indigenous Student Services

1 (905) 525-9140
Garland

Deb Garland

Program Manager, Engagement & Wellness, HR Services

1 (905) 525-9140
Goff

Lori Goff

Director, MacPherson Institute

1 (905) 525-9140
Halladay

Jill Halladay

RN, Clinical Epidemiologist, and PhD candidate (HRM), School of Nursing sessional instructor

1 (905) 525-9140
Hampshire

Jacqueline Hampshire

Associate Director (Communications, Marketing and Events), Student Success Centre

1 (905) 525-9140
mk

Nick Kates (Co-Chair)

Chair, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences

Khan

Ayesha Khan

Associate Professor, Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour

1 (905) 525-9140
Zeinab

Zeinab Khawaja

Health Promotor, Student Wellness Centre

1 (905) 525-9140
LoGuidice

Andrew LoGuidice

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Mental Health and Well-being, MacPherson Institute

1 (905) 525-9140
McCabe

Randi McCabe

Director, Anxiety Treatment and Research Centre, SJH, Professor, Department of Psychiatry

1 (905) 525-9140
Menezes

Natasja Menezes

Chair, Student Affairs, Undergraduate Medicine, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry

1 (905) 525-9140
cm

Catharine Munn (Co-Chair)

Task Force Lead Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry Lead, Hippo-on-Campus Mental Health Education Program

1 (905) 525-9140

Dr. Debbie Nifakis

C.Psych, Associate Director, Counselling, SWC

1 (905) 525-9140
Pereira

Ana Pereira

Lead Coordinator for International Students, Student Success Centre

1 (905) 525-9140
Will

Will Prakash Fujarczuk

Sexual Violence Prevention Education Coordinator, Equity & Inclusion Office

1 (905) 525-9140
Prowse

Tracy Prowse

Associate Dean, Academic, Associate Professor, Anthropology

1 (905) 525-9140

Workplace & Educational Environment

Information Box Group

lynn

Lynn Armstrong

Administrator, McMaster Okanagan Committee

1 (905) 525-9140
Clark

Dr. David L. Clark

Professor, Department of English and Cultural Studies

1 (905) 525-9140
CC

Dr. Catherine Connelly

Professor and CRC, and Area Chair Human Resources and Management

1 (905) 525-9140

Allison Drew-Hassling

Director of Student Support and Case Management, Student Accessibility Services

1 (905) 525-9140
Dunn

Jim Dunn

Chair, Heath, Aging & Society, Director, McMaster Institute for Health Equity

1 (905) 525-9140
Duwai-Sowa

May-Marie Duwai-Sowa

Employment Equity Specialist

1 (905) 525-9140
Kaur

Hargun Kaur

Student Representative

1 (905) 525-9140
Kwan

Matt Kwan

Canadian Campus Well-being Survey – McMaster Lead

1 (905) 525-9140
Lightstone

Marilyn Lightstone

Professor and Chair, Mechanical Engineering

1 (905) 525-9140
LoGuidice

Andrew LoGuidice

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Mental Health and Well-being, MacPherson Institute

1 (905) 525-9140
McAndrew

Jim McAndrew

UNIFOR Representative

1 (905) 525-9140
Mitchell

Clare Mitchell

Chief Operating Officer, Clinical Services, FHS

1 (905) 525-9140

Sandra Moll (Co-Chair)

Associate Professor, School of Rehabilitation Science (Occupational Therapy)

1 (905) 525-9140
lisa

Lisa Morine

Director Health Safety and Risk Management

1 (905) 525-9140
cm

Catharine Munn (Co-Chair)

Task Force Lead, Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Lead, Professor Hippo-on-Campus Mental Health Education Program

Narro Pérez

Rodrigo Narro Pérez

PhD Candidate, School of Earth, Environment and Society; Co-Convener - Race, Racialization and Racism Working Group (R3)

1 (905) 525-9140

Maggie Pooran

Executive Director, Employee & Labour Relations, Human Resources Services

1 (905) 525-9140
Roberts

Chris Roberts

Director, Hospitality Services

1 (905) 525-9140
Sills

Alison Sills

Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Past-President, MUFA

1 (905) 525-9140
Vulcu

Felicia Vulcu

Associate Professor (teaching), Biochem / Biomedical Sciences

1 (905) 525-9140
Young

Marisa Young

Associate Professor, Canadian Research Chair in Mental Health and Work-Life Transitions

1 (905) 525-9140

Mental Health & Well-Being Key Terms

Bullying: ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening.

Burnout: a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed (Reference: World Health Organization). Burnout is characterized by three main dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism (less identification with the job), and feelings of reduced ability or effectiveness.

Harassment: a form of discrimination including any unwanted physical or verbal behaviour that offends or humiliates you. Generally, harassment is a behaviour that persists over time.

Mental health: a state of well-being in which the individual realizes their own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to their community. (Reference: World Health Organization).

Mistreatment: intentional or unintentional, disrespectful treatment of an individual (or group) that has or may have the effect of creating an intimidating, humiliating, hostile or offensive work or learning environment for the individual in that circumstance. Examples of mistreatment include sexual harassment; discrimination or harassment based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation; humiliation, psychological or physical punishment; and the use of grading and other forms of assessment in a punitive manner.

Organizational compassion: members of a system collectively notice, feel and respond to pain experienced by members of that system.

Organizational trust: the expectation within an organization that an individual is willing to allow themselves to be vulnerable and can expect the organization to be trustworthy.

Psychological contract: an individual belief in a reciprocal obligation between the individual and the organization

Psychological safety: participants in a workplace (or educational environment) are confident that if they ask for help, seek feedback, admit errors or a lack of knowledge, try something new or raise ideas, questions, suggestions or work-related concerns, they will not be exposed to punishment, humiliation or interpersonal or social threats to their self or identity, their status or standing and to their career or employment.

Psychologically healthy and safe workplace: a workplace that promotes workers’ psychological well-being and actively works to prevent harm to worker psychological health including intelligent, reckless, or intentional ways. (Reference: Guarding Minds@Work)

Well-being: the state of being comfortable, happy or healthy.

Wellness: the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of a deliberate effort.