Anxious for an Appointment
Taking a closer look at the mental health epidemic at the University of Toronto
**all names were changed in this article to protect the privacy of sources
“I had a really bad panic attack last night.”
“I can’t come tomorrow I have my psychologist appointment.”
“I’m feeling really depressed today.”
As an undergrad student at University of Toronto, these are comments I commonly hear from my friends and peers. At an institution filled with high achievers and perfectionist’s, it’s no wonder students suffer from mental health issues. Canada’s Center for Addiction and Mental Health finds that “Young people aged 15 to 24 are more likely to experience mental illness and/or substance use disorders than any other age group.” These statistics shine brightly on the common age of U of T undergrad students.
Starting this September, U of T St. George has made some major changes to the way they offer mental health support to students. On September 8th UofT’s Health & Wellness Centre merged with the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). This change was prompted by the high wait times students using CAPS were experiencing.
A Student Perspective
Fourth Year Book & Media students Roxanna is currently seeking support from CAPS and still struggles with long waitlists. Two months ago, Roxanna was prescribed to see a psychologist for her problems with anxiety and depression. She’s been on the waitlist for two months without any word from CAPS.
“You have to go through two appointments, one with a doctor and one with a psychologist where they each spend an hour asking you the same questions. At the beginning I thought this was fine as they needed some background context on my problems but then, at the end of my sessions, I asked if they had any methods to deal my with anxiety. The psychologist’s response was that they were out of time and when I got my next psychologist appointment they could help me with some techniques. It’s now been two months since then…The only solution they gave me in the was a prescription for Benzodiazepines which is used for short term anxiety relief.”
Fifth Year Kinesiology Student Laura also had a negative experience with CAPS when she experienced higher levels of anxiety and depression during the school semester.
“I always had high level anxiety growing up I just didn’t realize it. When I entered university, that’s when things really became evident. The anxiety started to lead to depression and I started to get really down on myself so I called CAPS in my first year. They made me answer a survey over the phone. They then told me they would get back to me with an appointment. It took them I think about four months to get back to me. At that point I had found another psychologist to go to. During the summer after first year, I stopped seeing my psychologist because I honestly felt a lot better. However, when I returned to U of T in second year things started to slip away from me, I felt I lost control over my life again and started seeing my psychologist again.”
Recent Philosophy graduate Melody also shared her negative experience with CAPS when she sought help for her anxiety and depression.
“My mental health issues were definitely negatively affected by academic pressures at U of T. It was sometimes stress that triggered my episodes. At first, I tried to get help from CAPS in my third year when my anxiety and depression got really bad. It was really frustrating because of the way it was set up since I couldn’t access help immediately unless I showed signs of being suicidal. By the time I actually got in to see a counsellor. My episode was already almost over.
Even when I eventually got my appointments I found them unsuccessful. CAPS offered a resource to talk about my problems and feelings but they did not help to work through the problems or suggest any way to work towards solutions.”
Gabriella graduated from U of T in the fall with a degree in History and Political. Unlike the other students who sought help in the fall and winter semesters Gabriella applied to CAPS in the summer so only waited a few weeks before being assigned a counselor. The counselor she was assigned proved incredibly helpful in dealing with her depression. Gabriella’s one criticism was that CAPS only had a limited number of sessions available. The standard amounts of session’s students are prescribed is six.
Gabriella did find that the academic pressures of University of Toronto contributed to her mental health:
“I definitely felt overwhelmed during peak assignment months (mid terms, finals, etc). If anything I found my depression debilitating when it came to academic work. It was hard to motivate myself to complete work — I would classify the feeling as daunting. My inability to motivate myself definitely contributed to my anxiety. I developed anxiety at U of T because of the academic work & pressures of ‘finding your path in life.”
Fourth Year Communications student Zoe explains how she had a positive experience with her counseling services offered at the University of Toronto Mississauga Campus.
“In my first year at UTM I had pinpointed my stress and anxiety to “performance anxiety,” where I was afraid that I would not transition well into U of T. However, there were workshops available, and UTM Life who offered tips and coping strategies along the way. The Health centre would often collaborate. I also later on visited the career centre when I was experiencing “ future anxiety” and a trained counsellor really helped me to understand and trust myself. I never experienced any problems with wait time and could even contact my psychologist via email who would reply verily quickly to me.”
Based on Zoe’s testimony it appears that the Mississauga’s campus is better equipped to quickly handle students mental health needs. This could either be based on number of psychologists available or lower rates of mental health at UTM.
What other Programs CAPS offers
Clearly CAPS is not equipped with the correct number of psychologist to meet the needs of U of T St. George students. To supplement this, they do offer a variety of group workshops that are designed to help students with anxiety, depression and stress.
These workshops are offered at the Koffler Student Centre at 214 College Street. Some of these workshops include, Better Breath, Better Sleep, Better Relationships and a four part series of Coping Skills Workshops (Balanced Thinking, Behavioral Change, Emotional Regulation, and Balance Living).
Although there are a variety of group sessions offered to students without a wait time, sometimes this isn’t the best answer. When students suffer from more serious illnesses, like anxiety and depression, a personal connection with a qualified doctor to specifically address their needs is imperative.
Roxanna, who struggles with anxiety and depression decided to try out some of the Coping Skills workshops while she waited for her one-on-one appointment with a psychologist.
“I attended the Balanced Living workshop but it wasn’t at all what I needed. It was more about time management, healthy eating, where to workout on campus. These aren’t the things I’m having issues with. I would feel better actually telling someone my unique problems and having a more personal approach to handling them.”
Is Fall Reading Week a solution?
One way Universities are responding to high rates of mental health on campus is by implementing a fall reading week, a break that U of T will implement starting in Fall 2016. This will hopefully help lower student mental health concerns triggered by school related stress and anxiety since research demonstrates that an extended break from a stressful environment allows students time to decompress and regroup.
Here is quote on Fall Reading week found on the U of T website.
Currently over 50% of Ontario Universities offer a fall reading week. Carleton University in Ottawa recently implemented a fall reading week in 2013 due to student protest and the tragic suicide of one of their students the previous year.
University of Toronto St. George even offers a workshop with CAPS specifically designed to cater to certain academic disciplines like engineering. However the structure of this strenuous engineering program should be examined instead of simply offering workshops to help engineers deal with stress. Nothing will truly change until the core structure of our education is changed. The University of Toronto’s implementation of fall reading week is a step in the right direction however based on the testimonies of University of Toronto students there still clearly isn’t enough help being provided with the on–campus support of CAPS.
To what lengths must students suffering continue until the University takes stand in either changing the structure of their education or finding the budget to make hiring more psychologist a priority? Hopefully soon, because students cannot afford to be anxious for an appointment.
