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Student Wellbeing Health Equity Commitment Statement
Updated March 1, 2021
The Student Wellbeing team affirms our commitment to an approach steeped in health equity, accessibility, and inclusion, that honours our students’ voice and lived experience. We commit to the following:
- We are committed to working collaboratively with students, the Toronto Metropolitan University community and our neighbours in downtown Toronto and beyond to cultivate whole health and wellbeing in our community.
- We are committed to contributing to abolishing health disparities and will continue to create the conditions for equitable access to care for all students.
- We are committed to embracing a systemic and whole student/holistic approach to care based on the social determinants of health.
- We are committed to taking responsibility for making positive change, and will take direct and ongoing action to address anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, anti-LGBTQ2S+ discrimination, and other forms of racism and oppression inside and outside Toronto Metropolitan University.
- We are committed to supporting each other as members of Student Wellbeing as we embrace bringing about positive change through our work.
Fall 2021 Update
Updated November 1, 2021
In March 2021, the Student Wellbeing team affirmed its commitment to health equity and contributing to a campus community that fosters a fair opportunity for all students to reach their health potential by publishing its Health Equity Commitment Statement. The following summarizes some of the highlights from our health equity focused work over the past year:
- STRIVE programming offered all students registered with Academic Accommodation Support (AAS) a collaborative way to build community and cultivate wellbeing through development and sharing of learning strategies and assistive technology support. By attending STRIVE programming, students reported feeling: “connected”, “seen”, “not alone”, “productive”, “calm”, “supported”.
- To help reduce the stress associated with remote test taking, and despite being physically closed, the Test Centre ensured access to its services by assisting with test environment set-up for individual student tests and exams remotely. Test accommodations were set up through D2L for 1,869 assessments during the 2020-2021 academic year.
- The Test Centre established equitable access to assessment and testing by supporting students experiencing technical challenges with accessibility software (due to the remote testing environment), remote-scribes and Test Centre support.
- Creation of staff positions to address identified gaps in staff diversity
- In consultation with key community partners, created tailored pathways of care for Black-identified and Indigenous students seeking counselling support
- Enhanced provision of culturally appropriate care through focused improvements on matching for students from equity-deserving groups requiring mental health care from providers with shared backgrounds
- Provided assessment, program planning and content expert support and guidance to the Continuing Education Student’s Association of X University (CESAX) as they explored new avenues to provide health and wellbeing support for continuing education students
- Expanded and flexed its enrolment model to include self booking and introducing evening appointments so as to reach more students
- Offering Student Health Assistance and Resiliency Peer Program (SHARPP) students as a comprehensive and unlimited mental health and wellbeing resource to continuing education students in collaboration with CESAX
- Physicians trained in Trans-care including hormone treatment and application for Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) covered gender affirming surgery
- Physicians up-to-date on new procedures for long acting contraception, specifically subdermal implant (Nexplanon)
- Improving digital patient care and will soon offer secure messaging/document sharing with patients and access online appointment booking
- Thriving in Action (TiA) expanded our team to create and strengthen collaborations across Student Wellbeing. The team is working on several grants and partnerships to increase access to positive psychology and holistic learning strategies (embedded in TiA) for students and staff across our university and post secondary institutions in Ontario.