Minister’s directive on student mental health for publicly assisted colleges and universities

Introduction

The Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act, 2024 received Royal Assent on May 16, 2024. This legislation amended the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act (the “Act”) with new requirements for Ontario’s publicly-assisted colleges and universities to have a student mental health policy in place. Policies must describe the programs, services, and supports available with respect to student mental health.

The Act requires each institution to publish its student mental health policy on its website and make a copy of the policy available to anyone who requests it. The institution must review its student mental health policy at least once every five years and amend it as appropriate. Each institution must provide its Board of Governors with an annual report on the implementation and effectiveness of its student mental health policy in the preceding year.

The Act also enables the minister to issue a directive that specifies topics to be addressed or elements to be included in a college or university’s policy and the date by which they must be addressed or included and to specify steps that the minister intends to take if, in the opinion of the minister, a college or university fails to comply with subsection of the Act or the directive.

Objectives

Recognizing that mental health needs vary by institution and campus based on the unique characteristics of the student population and the broader community, the objectives of this directive are to:

• Improve consistency across the sector while supporting flexibility.
• Leverage evidence-informed approaches and best practices.
• Increase student awareness of, and ease of access to, services and supports.
• Support positive student experiences and thriving campus communities that optimize academic, and ultimately, labour market success.

Minimum requirements

A student mental health policy could take many forms as long as there is a centralized platform where students can easily access all the necessary information in alignment with the legislative and directive requirements.

To guide the development of student mental health policies and approaches, institutions should consider and adapt best practice guidance.

For example:

• The National Standard of Canada for Mental Health and Well-being for Post-secondary Students (the National Standard)
• The Okanagan Charter:An International Charter for Health Promoting University and Colleges.

Resources such as the:

• Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health (CICMH)
• Best Practices in Canadian Higher Education
• Canadian Health Promoting Campuses Network, which is guided by the Okanagan Charter.
• Tools such as webinars, workshops, and toolkits developed by CICMH and other organizations such as the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Key elements

All student mental health policies must include:

• Student-centred principles that demonstrate the institution’s commitments to its student population with respect to mental health and well-being.
• Easy access to information on programs, policies, services and supports available with respect to student mental health including resources on campus and in the community.
• Information on how the institution protects privacy and confidentiality for individuals accessing campus mental health and wellness services.
• A holistic range of approaches such as upstream measures like mental health and wellness promotion (for example, stress reduction, positive coping strategies, mental health literacy and de-stigmatization) to downstream measures like mental health intervention and crisis response.

Processes

In developing and/or refining their policy and approaches, institutions are required to:

• Review and understand the current state (for example, data, policies, services, programs, institutional websites) to identify strengths and gaps/needs.
• Ensure recent consultation with key stakeholders has taken place (including with students) in order to clearly identify priorities of the campus population.
• Offer equitable access and culturally safe supports to meet the unique needs and complexities faced by students.
• Work towards embedding mental health policy components across the institution.
• Establish and/or cultivate partnerships to support gateways to referrals and specialized services beyond what the postsecondary institution is able to offer.

Timelines

Each institution is required to report annually to its Board of Governors each year on the implementation and effectiveness of its student mental health policy.

The institution’s policy shall specify the content of the annual report.

The report must be made publicly available on the dedicated webpage and submitted to the minister by January 31st of each year, beginning January 31, 2026 via psepolicy@ontario.ca.

The reports made available to the public and submitted to the minister should not contain personal information, information that would compromise personal privacy or that would otherwise reveal information that should properly remain confidential.

As outlined in the legislation, publicly assisted colleges and universities are required to review their student mental health policy at least once every five years and amend it as appropriate.

Compliance

The ministry will monitor compliance including adherence to accountabilities outlined in this directive.