NU Supporting Students in Distress

Nipissing University is offering a new resource to staff and faculty that will assist them in confidently recognizing, responding to, and referring a student in distress. The training folder, titled Supporting Students in Distress, works in conjunction with the NU Listens campaign announced last week. It is a revised and updated version of Nipissing’s Yellow Folder, and is now available on the NU website. This new resource is user-friendly, and can be used on the spot to help support a student.

The information provided in the folder follows the ‘recognize, respond, and refer’ philosophy, corresponding with the online training module in NU listens, titled More Feet on the Ground. This module was developed by the Council of Ontario Universities (COU)?, in partnership with the Ontario Government’s Mental Health Innovation Fund.

The folder provides guidelines for recognizing signs of distress, offers suggestions on how to start a supportive conversation with a student, as well as provides information regarding resources available to support students on campus and in the community.

The folder is best paired with a 30-minute presentation offered by Bryanne Bird, student intervention specialist at Nipissing University. The presentation reviews student mental health in Canada and at the university, and provides an overview on how to use the folder appropriately.
To book a presentation, contact Bryanne Bird at sis@nipissingu.ca or 705-474-3450 X 4605

Faculty and staff can access a printed copy of the Supporting Students in Distress folder by contacting Bryanne.