Creating a caring community: Advancing mental health at UCalgary

For a long time, discussions about mental health were often coloured by stigma and a “suck it up” attitude. 

But, over its history, the University of Calgary has helped refocus the discussion, from launching its first Clinical Psychology training program in the 1980s to introducing its groundbreaking Campus Mental Health Strategy a decade ago.

UCalgary researchers have spent decades looking at mental health from all angles and understanding its importance to our well-being at home, work and play. 

While “suck it up” has, in many respects, been replaced by, “it’s okay to not be okay,” Dr. Andrew Szeto, PhD, says change is still ongoing.

“There is a stigma that still exists,” says Szeto, a professor in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and executive director of UCalgary’s Office of Institutional Commitments. “Many people are able to get the help they need, but sometimes they don’t, so we’re progressing, but we’re not 100-per cent totally there yet.”

While it is still a work in progress, he and others believe the changes that have been made on campus will permeate throughout the greater community in the years ahead.

A step towards change

The first murmurs in the overall conversation about mental health at UCalgary were heard in 1989 when Dr. Keith Dobson, PhD, arrived to start its Clinical Psychology training program.

A global expert in the field with expertise in models of psychopathology, evidence-based psychosocial treatments of mental disorders, and interventions that reduce stigma towards mental health problems, Dobson served as the program’s first director and eventually became head of the Department of Psychology.

Dobson, who is now a professor emeritus and member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the Cumming School of Medicine, says it wasn’t an easy sell in the early days.

“We were focused more on experimental psychology and less on individualized support,” he says. “There was definitely some tension within the department about resources and resource allocation, but that quickly eroded as the program got going and we were accredited.”

Among the early successes for Dobson and his team were a pair of programs: The Working Mind and The Inquiring Mind.

Both programs still exist today with a focus on increasing mental health literacy, reducing stigmas and offering resources across UCalgary.

A shared responsibility

A major turning point in the discussion around mental health occurred in 2015 when UCalgary’s first Campus Mental Health Strategy was unveiled.

Just a couple of years removed from an eye-opening Mental Health Commission of Canada series of reports highlighting the challenges facing youth and young adults in the country, the Strategy was aimed at fostering a “community of caring” for students, faculty and staff.

The university had recently implemented the National College Health Assessment survey, which found 90 per cent of students felt overwhelmed, 64 per cent felt lonely, 58 per cent felt overpowering anxiety and eight per cent had seriously considered suicide at some point in the last 12 months.

“The University of Calgary includes a diverse community of individuals who come together to learn, work and flourish,” said then-President and Vice-Chancellor Elizabeth Cannon at the Strategy’s launch. “Through this new Campus Mental Health Strategy, we aim to become a leader, locally and across Canada, in promoting a healthy campus community.”

Szeto was named the Strategy’s director, responsible for guiding the implementation of its 28 recommendations.

Looking back on it, he says it was aimed at giving each person the skills to take personal action for their own mental health while creating a university environment that provided a strong system of resources and supports.

“As individuals, we need to have the motivation to do something about our mental health, seeking out resources, engaging in training and taking care of ourselves,” Szeto says. “As an institution, we needed to have the resources and programming available to provide a culture that supports mental health and well-being.”

From faculty-based programs to campus-wide initiatives like UFlourish, the strategy — which was later renewed and renamed the Community Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy — has been widely accepted and adopted in all corners of UCalgary.

An individualized approach

During the journey of opening the conversation about mental health, one of the most important realizations has been about how it’s usually not one stand-alone event that acts as a trigger, but a series.

Dobson says a study out of California in the early 2000s showed that adverse childhood experiences can have long-term impacts, even in adults.

The way we respond to mental health issues has also become more sophisticated to address each individual, instead of making blanket assertions or diagnoses.

“Back in the 1980s, we had a very symptom-focused approach to diagnosing mental health issues,” Dobson says. “Since then, we have continued to evolve to become more focused on the individual, their needs and what kind of therapy might be the most effective for the condition that they’re presenting with.”

It’s critical to get patients to the right place the first time, he says, because concerns are starting to be raised over self-diagnosis and over-diagnosis as people become more aware of the variety of conditions.

Change for the future

Dobson and Szeto say the path forward in the field of mental health will continue to change as more research is done.

Being an early adopter and having one of the first post-secondary campus mental health strategies in Canada, Dobson says UCalgary has positioned itself as a leader on campus and in the community.

While some focus is on issues like substance use and homelessness, he says others are looking at the impact of mental health issues on family dynamics and work productivity.

Times also change, and societal shifts such as the one we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted how important community is for the feeling of inclusion and, with it, mental health, Szeto adds.

A member of The Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education, Szeto says that, although we are not quite at a point where we can move on from awareness and stigma reduction, we should also be working towards embedding mental health into everything we do.

“The ideal future state is that mental health is just a thing that we all do,” Szeto says. “No second-guessing, no questions asked, we just do it and it’s a part of who we are. It’s a part of taking care of ourselves and others.”

Read the Community Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy.