Your voice matters

Student Wellbeing welcomes your feedback at any time. Please fill out the form to provide feedback.

Allard Health and Wellness Survey 2019 was a large scale survey conducted to understand the current Health and Wellness of the student population. The same survey was conducted at the University of Toronto in 2018. With other law schools also showing an interest, the hope is to form aggregated data for Canadian Law school Student Health and Wellness. A summary of the results may be obtained by Allard Law students by emailing the Student Wellbeing Counsellor.

Every year in May, Allard Wellbeing surveys students regarding the past years’ wellbeing programming with a goal of adjusting and improving the following years’ programming. Results of the 2020 survey, along with plans to address are below:
 
Check-in with students more regularly via email:​​ Student Wellbeing is introducing a new initiative where the Student Wellbeing Counsellor will send out emails to individual students throughout the school year, proactively checking in on your wellbeing and mental health, and opening up space for a chat. You will only receive one or two wellbeing check-in emails per year, so still feel free to initiate contact as needed.
 
Move the location of the wellness office: The wellbeing office location won’t change but please know that you can access counselling with the onsite counsellor via phone or Zoom. You can also access counselling onsite at UBC Counselling Services and through the Lawyers Assistance Program. The wellbeing office is also where you can come to collect wellbeing items (stress brain, sensory rings), the wellbeing library and chocolate (!), so entering the office does not signal that you are coming for counselling.
 
More mental health awareness training in 1L orientation: Student Wellbeing is actively researching and working with the Orientation Coordinators on providing mental health awareness information and clearly communicating the resources available and accessible to all students. We are  also collaborating with faculty to offer appropriate mental health training in class, for example ‘coping with vicarious trauma’.
 
More information on how to contact the available resources: Along with the resources listed on the Allard Student Wellbeing  website and provided in weekly emails, we are reviewing how to best and most directly ensure quick and easy access to available resources to students. This will  include information on how the multiple resources work, and what the student insurance plan covers. If you have ideas about the best places to promote this information, please email the Student Wellbeing Counsellor, thanks! Of course you can always contact the Student Wellbeing Counsellor for assistance on how to navigate additional resources, and for referrals.
 
Normalize mental health: Normalizing and reducing the stigma of mental health is one of the top priorities of Student Wellbeing. We are currently researching best ways in which to do so. Past programming, for example, Wellbeing Wednesdays, was a way to increase access to wellbeing in a low-key manner. Also, increased access and information to lawyers who have experienced wellbeing issues as a way to validate and normalize experiences has also been started with the Lawyer Wellbeing Mentor and Lawyer Wellbeing Stories initiative. These initiatives obviously need better promotion.
 
Open dialogue is one way to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and increases the participation in wellbeing initiatives. During online learning, Student Wellbeing will continue to promote information to normalize and validate wellbeing issues via posts in the Student Services Facebook page, the Wellbeing website, and with a new Wellbeing Orientation guide that has been created for 1L orientation (we will post this to the website so all Allard students may access it).
 
Online appointments: Anna Kline is currently offering telephone or Zoom counselling calls. These are  available for booking in advance and drop-in by emailing. We foresee these online options continuing even when in-person classes are able to resume.
 
Less signage about drinking water/exercising: We understand that representation and visualization matters. We are reviewing in-person signage and social media posts to best support the diversity of students and minds that make up the Allard community, while trying to raise awareness of and normalize wellbeing strategies.
 
More flexible event times: Student wellbeing is cognizant of the demands on time of law students and understands that your lunch  is an important time for a break. Accordingly, we are exploring different events at different times to be flexible and insure student access to wellbeing offerings. For example, we are looking into the idea of moving Wellbeing Wednesday, once a month,  to the morning. We would provide a quick, healthy bite for you to enjoy a breakfast option on your way to class, while providing a time to socialize and check-in with other students.
 
Physical activity programming (yoga, walks, hikes): Many students expressed not having enough time to focus on  physical wellbeing or having to prioritize school instead. We are looking into options to providing online or in-person sessions available to Allard students to facilitate and encourage keeping up with physical wellbeing during the school year. We are also working closely with UBC Rec to offer experiential and psychoeducational fitness and exercise tips.
 
 
We also heard many suggestions, that while are connected to student wellbeing, are outside of the Student Wellbeing purview, for example, ‘advocating for exams that are not worth 100%’ and ‘more flexibility in class learning’. We want you to know that we have sent this information along to the respective groups who may be able to action change in these areas.
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Every year in May, Allard Wellbeing surveys students regarding the past years’ wellbeing programming with a goal of adjusting and improving the following years’ programming. Results of the 2021 survey, along with plans to address are below:

What is counselling? How to access in Allard and externally. How to access AMS studentcare for counsellors: Information will be updated and posted on the Allard Student Wellbeing website. Of course, you can always contact Anna for a chat about this information as well. She will happily assist you with researching and connecting with the best resources for your individual needs.

Ease of access: Student Wellbeing is easily accessible M-F 8.30-4.30 while remote through phone (604.822.4928) and email and also by drop in when back in person, and when protocols allow (rm 147b). Anna will respond to you as soon as she is able. Even during the summer! You are able to access services while you are a student of Allard and 3 months past your graduation date.

Are my issues serious enough? There is always time for a chat about your issues whether you feel they are serious or not. Many students have expressed the same thoughts this year in particular. Please feel welcome to come and chat as research shows us that the sooner you access support the quicker you can feel empowered and take charge of your mental health.

How frequently do students access counselling: In the 2020-2021 year there were about 900 attended wellbeing/counselling sessions (face to face sessions only, does not include workshop participation) which served around 220 Allard students. Which means almost a third of the student population has accessed the Student Wellbeing service for sessions. The main presenting issues were: anxiety, stress, academic performance, and depression.

Supporting a return to in-person instruction: This is our main priority for the upcoming school year. Psychoeducational information will be posted on fb, Instagram and on the Wellbeing website. Of course, you can always contact Anna for a chat about this information as well. She will happily talk about strategies to meet your individual needs.

Diversity in programming, eg, events to support racialized groups, neurodiversity, etc: Student Wellbeing is committed to inclusion and diversity and is always striving to find ways to apply this to programming. Student wellbeing has collaborated with some of the Allard student clubs to identify ways to make programming more inclusive and respectful to diversity. This will continue. Any suggestions and collaborations are most welcome. Information will also be posted of what counselling/wellbeing supports are already available at Allard/UBC/community for a diverse population (UBC SAP offers counselling with culturally diverse counsellors in many languages; UBC offers coaching for neurodiversity).

Wellbeing feels disconnected from academics: Student Wellbeing is collaborating more and more with faculty and staff at Allard to increase ways and opportunities to combine wellbeing strategies specific to course material. For example: “coping with traumatic material” in Torts and Criminal Law classes. These collaborations will continue as a more integrated approach is most useful.

Mental health assessment tools: There are many tools available. Currently, Student Wellbeing collaborates with the CSO in the LawMap program which helps students to assess strengths (using the Clifton Strengths Finder) and values with career planning. Student Wellbeing is also in the process of developing a program which assesses students’ emotional intelligence and how to develop these for academic and career success. Of course, you can always contact Anna for a chat about tools as well. She will happily assist you with researching the best tools for your current individual needs.

Other wellbeing events (e.g. massage, physiotherapy, animals, music, crafting, sharing circles, etc): Some of these workshops have been available at Allard. As we move back to in person we will be able to organize them again. Thank you for the additional suggestions! Student Wellbeing plans to add some these to the Wellbeing program for the upcoming year. 

Systemic changes to law curriculum: The relationship between wellbeing and structural change is an important consideration for law students. Therefore, Student Wellbeing strives to understand and support minimizing the impact of systemic stressors upon mental health. We want you to know that we have sent your comments along to the respective groups who are able to action change in these areas. Also note that the LSS Director of Wellness is your advocate for change.