Principal Daniel Woolf welcomes the Ontario government’s renewed support for the Mental Health Innovation Fund, which provides funding for projects aimed at improving services for post-secondary students with mental health issues.

“The Mental Health Innovation Fund is enabling us to develop new services designed to improve the mental health of not only Queen’s students but young adults across the province,” Principal Woolf says. “I welcome the decision to extend the fund, and I look forward to Queen’s continuing to play a leading role in this field with the support of the Ontario government."

With support from the fund, Queen’s has created the M2 Peer Mentoring Program, which matches specially trained upper-year student mentors with students who are experiencing mental health problems or disabilities. The goal of the program is to provide students with various tools to succeed in their post-secondary education. Mike Condra, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and director of Health, Counselling and Disability Services, is the principal investigator for the project, which launched its pilot stage earlier this fall.

The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities has also provided funding to Queen’s and St. Lawrence College to develop province-wide documentation standards and guidelines for accommodating students with mental health disabilities. Dr. Condra and Wanda Williams, director of Student Services at St. Lawrence College, will use the results of a province-wide survey of faculty and staff to develop resources and guides that can be used by all post-secondary institutions.

The Mental Health Innovation Fund is part of the multi-year, $257 million Open Minds, Healthy Minds, Ontario’s comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Strategy. The government will begin accepting proposals from colleges and universities later this month.