The new McGill Student Wellness Hub is in full swing. Since it officially opened in July, the Hub has offered 12,000 appointments to students, increasing access to mental health appointments at McGill over the last year.
McGill’s new approach to student wellness is anchored by the Student Wellness Hub based in the Brown Student Services Building. Based on best practices and developed with input from students, the $14-million initiative is redesigning the way McGill provides physical and mental health services to students.
Funding health and wellness
The new collaborative approach to health and wellness is funded in part by The Rossy Foundation, a private Montreal-based foundation whose priorities include supporting the needs of young adults in the post-secondary context.
Additional funding to support wellness and mental health programs in the Desautels Faculty of Management comes from Gisele and Neil Murdoch, BCom’81, and in the Faculty of Law from Jonathan Amiel, BA’98, BCL/LLB’02.
A range of services and ways to access them
The new approach provides a broader set of options to students and includes a range of programs in addition to clinical offerings, with the aim of engaging the entire McGill community.
The Hub provides new ways to access services, not only in the Brown Student Services Building – where it is physically located – but also online on the Virtual Hub. Additionally, 11 Local Wellness Advisors work directly in the faculties and other units, serving as the “spokes” of the “hub-and-spoke” model.
The physical space of the Hub is the go-to place for all health and wellness resources, including doctors, nurses, counsellors, dietitians, psychiatrists and advisors. The Hub Commons is an inviting space where students can relax before appointments. The Hub Healthy Living Annex, attached to the Commons, is dedicated to outreach, promotion and peer-support activities.
And finally, the Virtual Hub acts as a single portal for online health and wellness information. It also serves as the virtual Access Point, where students will eventually book appointments online.