With one semester under our belt, the Student Wellness Hub team has heard you and made some changes since we first launched in direct response to your feedback.
Here are just a few examples:
- We moved up the time we start to intake student appointments from 9am to 8am. This means that we can process most drop-ins from our morning rush in time for students to get to 8:35am classes.
- We’ve increased both physical and mental health appointments significantly, with even more improvements on the way as we onboard new clinicians.
- We’ve added case managers for improved access to urgent mental health care.
- Student Wellness Groups are now tailored to specific faculties across campus so students feel better supported and understood
- We've added an anonymous feedback form to reduce barriers to submitting feedback, and we're working on additional ways to allow you to more quickly and easily provide feedback
- Our HPV clinic format has been adapted from a single, all-encompassing drop-in event to now offering information and prescription sessions together, followed by a direct appointment to receive your vaccination.
- Increased student involvement in decision-making, including the Student Wellness Hub Advisory Board, which is co-chaired by SSMU’s Mental Health Commissioners, and the Healthy Living Annex Advisory Board, which is almost entirely comprised of student members. We also have on-going meetings every month between Hub leadership and SSMU representatives.
There are still many improvements to be made, and we wouldn’t be able to get there without continued input from you, our students. Taking into account your feedback, research, and best practices, here's what we're working on going into Winter 2020:
- Online booking: We’re on our way to adopting an online booking software, having had multiple vendors present their solutions to us this Fall. However, large purchases like these are required by the Quebec government to go through a specific and extensive procurement process, so it takes longer than it might seem.
- The Virtual Hub: Based on student feedback, we’ll be producing more engaging content for the Virtual Hub, including more images and infographics to better summarize information. We’ll also be exploring ways to make the site easier to access. We'll consult students in the Winter semester to continue reorganizing information in ways that make sense to you.
- Additional staff training: To ensure our clinicians are well-versed on the realities of our students, we’re providing extensive ongoing training. Some of the topics that have already been covered this term or will be covered soon to provide better-informed support include: Cultural Competency, Working with Students with Autism, and Working with Trans Students.
- Suicide response: McGill is developing a framework to address suicide response for the University as a whole. The Hub is joining a large number of student groups, McGill administrators, and community organizations in discussions, and the eventual framework will inform training and an awareness campaign.
- Alternative medical options: In addition to exploring ways to expand our relationships with local clinics to improve ease of access for our students, we’re also looking into additional online tools and partnerships to offer students care and support to supplement the services offered on-campus. Stay tuned for more information.
Despite what you may have heard, the Hub team appreciates your feedback and are always looking for ways to improve our services and communications. Have an idea? Reach out to us by hub.clinic [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Hub%20Feedback) (email), via our webform (which can be completed anonymously), or in person at the Hub.
