New mental health and wellness plan implemented

As part of an ongoing commitment to wellness at King’s, a cross-campus committee has developed a new Mental Health and Wellness Plan. While the Plan incorporates elements of Western’s Mental Health and Wellness Strategic Plan (2018), the committee incorporated feedback from students, staff and faculty to make it something unique to King’s.

“You can’t be academically successful if you are not feeling well,” Joe Henry, Dean of Students, says, in stressing the importance of mental health and wellness.

Joanna Bedggood, Manager of Student Wellness, who helped lead the team, says feedback was “really helpful for us in coming up with the final draft. This plan captured all the things we hoped it would capture.”

 “This is a sign of King’s ongoing commitment to wellness and mental health,” Henry says. He notes this new plan “will require the whole campus to think of wellness in a different way.”

Henry says the plan “provides a framework to develop a healthy campus that is supportive of wellness. It’s not just a unit or a department but how we view wellness at King’s.”

King’s Mental Health and Wellness Plan recognizes the importance of mental health and wellness of everyone at King’s including students, faculty, staff and visitors alike, emphasizing the importance of spiritual well-being and taking a broader approach to the promotion and preservation of mental wellness.

The task of creating the plan was made easier due to the pre-existing health initiatives at King’s. “We want to acknowledge what is already being done. We’re not starting for zero. We’re all a part of it. We have many departments and groups contributing in many ways,” Bedggood says.

King’s has long been at the forefront of mental health initiatives, including the first Friendship Bench in London and being the first university college in Southwestern Ontario to sign the Okanagan Charter for Health Promoting Campuses. Additionally, King’s is partner in the Canadian Mental Health Association After-Hours Crisis initiative in London, funded by the London Community Foundation. 

The finalized version of the plan can be viewed at https://www.kings.uwo.ca/current-students/student-affairs/mental-health-and-wellness-at-king-s/mental-health-and-wellness-plan/

For more information about Mental Health and Wellness at Kings, visit https://www.kings.uwo.ca/current-students/student-affairs/mental-health-and-wellness-at-king-s/