-Adela Zyfi
Being an international student means many things. It means opening your eyes to a new language, culture, education, and people. It means diversifying yourself and your outlook on life. It means gaining valuable and irreplaceable, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. But it also means facing some very unique struggles, which bring a whole lot of stress and worry. Being far away from your family, language and facing cultural barriers, immigration and financial issues are only a few of the main stressors which affect international students. Many of these factors have a very significant impact on students’ mental health.
Throughout recent years, there has been a rise in acknowledging mental health issues on post-secondary campuses. Most Canadian citizens are lucky to have these issues introduced to them at an early age. However, this is not the case for many international students. Mental health is heavily stigmatized in many countries and is either not talked about at all, or is portrayed in a very negative light. This makes reaching out for help especially difficult for international students who might be struggling.
Speaking Your Language, a joint tri-campus project between Ryerson University, University of Toronto and OCAD University funded by the government of Ontario, was created with the purpose of addressing, acknowledging, and implementing strategies to support students and de-stigmatize their experiences with mental health. Speaking Your Language’s goal has been to help students overcome cultural barriers and make them feel more comfortable about discussing mental health and accessing support services available on and off campus.
In order to reach its goals, students involved with Speaking Your Language have held monthly ‘Let’s Talk’ events covering topics that newcomers struggle with like the harsh Canadian winter, exams, relationships, and shortly, careers. The ‘Let’s Talk’ series has been hugely successful and has proven to be a fruitful opportunity for both international and domestic students to openly discuss the mental health aspects surrounding these topics in a safe and comfortable space. During these talk sessions, student facilitators who organize and run the events, facilitate table discussions and help other students ask questions, share stories, and gain resource and knowledge regarding the topics. Alumni and professionals like counsellors, career advisors, and staff from various support services on campus are also invited to share useful advice, experiences and tips with students. Along with the monthly talk series, Speaking Your Language has also held an eight week Mandarin-speaking group program, led and facilitated by a counsellor and social worker from Hong Fook Mental Health Association. Both series have proven to be very positive, and have enabled students to open up and reach out for help when they need it.
On Friday, February 20th, 2015, Speaking Your Language held a symposium, which shared best practices on how to support and help improve international students’ mental health and well-being. The symposium was an opportunity for 150 professionals from across Canada to come together and learn about Speaking Your Language and to share their experiences and effective approaches to supporting international student mental health.
Counsellors and other post-secondary professionals working with international students had the chance to discuss new and innovative methods regarding helping international students reach out to mental health services and resources. One of the most interesting components of the symposium was the International Student Panel, during which of international students involved with the Speaking Your Language project, were given a chance to share their unique experiences and perspectives on mental health as newcomers to Canada. Students discussed their various challenges, how they coped with stressors and what they did that helped them overcome those obstacles. The students on the panel showed bravery by acknowledging their mental health challenges, and offered advice to future international students who will succeed them.
The video, What Does Mental Health Mean to You?, was an amazing collaboration of students speaking up and expressing what mental health meant to them personally, the struggles they have faced, and advice they suggested. The video received amazing feedback and was seen as a very inspiring message regarding mental health.