Information for staff and faculty

Student Health and Wellness: Partnering to Support Student Success

At Lakehead, Student Health and Wellness (SHW) takes a strategic, evidence-informed approach to promoting student wellbeing. Our work is guided by national frameworks like the Okanagan Charter, the National Standard for Mental Health and Well-Being for Post-Secondary Students, and Lakehead University’s Strategic Plan and Wellness Strategy.

We also ground our work in local student data. SHW regularly collects and analyzes campus-specific wellbeing information to ensure our services reflect the real needs of Lakehead students. Most recently, we conducted the National College Health Assessment and will participate in the Canadian Campus Wellbeing Survey (CCWS) in 2026. These results inform our programming, outreach, and strategic planning.

We’ve developed key guiding documents for our department, including:

These strategies help operationalize best practices, ensure coordinated and sustainable support for students, and align our work with campus-wide priorities.

Faculty and staff play a critical role in fostering a healthy campus culture. Whether you’re noticing a student in distress, embedding wellness into your teaching, or responding to a critical incident, SHW is here to support you with practical tools, evidence-informed training, and opportunities for collaboration.

The WellU Key: A Simple Way to Help Students Find the Right Support

Female student sitting on laptop wearing lakehead tshirt, spray paint background in yellow and purple, text reading Wellu Key beside Lakehead SHW logoThe WellU Key is Student Health and Wellness starting point for student well-being. It helps students check in with their mental health, reflect on their needs, and explore support options, all in one place.

It makes it easier for staff and faculty to support students by offering a reliable, go-to tool that connects them with the right resources, without requiring you to assess their situation or determine next steps.

What the WellU Key Offers

The WellU Key is an online tool that helps students:

  • Check in with and reflect on their mental health and well-being

  • Get personalized recommendations

  • Navigate campus and community supports

  • Get reminders to update their assessment and monitor their wellness journey

It’s a one-stop resource designed to meet students where they’re at and allows them to make decisions about what kind of support fits their needs.

When the WellU Key Can Help

We recognize that faculty and staff are managing full workloads and may not always feel equipped to navigate the complexities of student support. The WellU Key streamlines this process by providing students with a self-guided approach to explore options tailored to their individual needs.

All you have to do is point them in its direction. Whatever they’re facing, stress, academic pressure, mental health concerns, or something else, the WellU Key helps students take the next step.

Integrating the WellU Key Into Your Role
  • Mention it in 1-on-1 conversations with students
  • Add it to your syllabus or D2L announcements
  • Include the slide in your intro lecture
  • Post a WellU Key flyer on your office door or in student spaces

 

Recognizing and Responding to Students in Distress

Supporting Students in Distress GuideOften, Lakehead University faculty and staff are the first to notice when a student may be struggling,  whether it's a change in behaviour, missed classes, or something shared in conversation.

To help you navigate these situations with confidence, Student Health and Wellness has developed the Supporting Students in Distress module and campus-specific guides. These tools are designed to help you recognize signs of distress, respond with care, and refer students to the right supports.

You don’t need to have all the answers; just knowing how to check in and where to point students for help can make a meaningful difference. Our goal is to make that process as clear, manageable, and supportive as possible.

Supporting Students in Distress Training

This self-paced module guides how to:

  • Recognize signs of distress

  • Approach and support students

  • Refer appropriately to resources

To access the module:

  1. Log in to MyCourselink.
  2. Select "Self-Registration: Academic Support and Training".
  3. Choose "Supporting Students in Distress: On Demand".
  4. Follow the prompts to register and complete the course.
Download the Guide

 

Embedding Wellness into the Classroom

Your classroom can be a powerful space for promoting student wellbeing. We offer practical strategies and resources to help.

Email Signature

Email signatures are regularly used to communicate information. Using your email signature to communicate your working hours can help to support your own work-life balance and create realistic expectations of response time for students.  Linking to the How to Ask for Help guide ensures that even if you do not immediately respond- students are still aware of the support and resources available to them and are encouraged to access them when needed. 

Suggested Signature line:

PLEASE NOTE MY WORK HOURS: I check and respond to emails during my working hours of Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. I will not regularly see or respond to emails outside of these hours.

Are you ok? Check in with the WellU Key to find the mental health resources you are looking for

Need to talk to someone right now?  Good 2 Talk is a free, confidential 24/7 post-secondary student helpline. Call 1-866-925-5454 or text GOOD2TALKON to 686868.

Mental Health Syllabi Statement

A statement in the syllabus can send a positive signal of support for students' learning and well-being by including recommendations and encouragement for students to take care of themselves and seek help when they need it.  The statement might also be used to encourage classroom conversations about the stigma that keeps students from getting professional help.

Suggested Statement:

As a university student, you may sometimes experience mental health concerns or stressful events that interfere with your academic performance and negatively impact your daily activities. 

All of us can benefit from support during times of struggle. If you or anyone you know experiences academic stress, difficult life events or feelings of anxiety or depression, Lakehead has resources available to you.  Check in with the WellU Key to find the mental health resources you are looking for.

Remember that getting help is a smart and courageous thing to do- for yourself, for those you care about, and for those who care about you.  Asking for support sooner rather than later is almost always helpful.

You could also choose to include this slide with the statement into your lecture slides. Student Health and Wellness can also provide a short presentation about the wellness services on campus.

Instructional Strategies
  • Create a positive and respectful environment. Explicitly communicate your intent to create an inclusive, accepting, and welcoming learning environment for all students. When teaching and addressing your students, try to use inclusive language (e.g., not making assumptions about your students’ background and life experiences). When students ask questions, listen and convey that you value their input. In general, model how you expect everyone to act in your courses.
  • Foster positive relationships with students. You can increase your approachability and social presence by using humour, addressing students by their names, and personalizing examples used in class. You can also invite students to drop by your office hours just to say hello to make office hours more informal. 
  • Build community among students. You can implement small group activities online, in your classes, or in tutorials, so students have the opportunity to meet and get to know each other. You can also encourage students to form their own study groups or partners. Be mindful that some students may be hesitant to verbally engage in group activities. In these cases, you can encourage them to participate by listening actively. Further, students who are uncomfortable discussing a specific topic may not need to participate.  
  • Foster a sense of belonging. Some students, especially in times of stress, may question whether they belong in their program or university environment in general. Emphasize that stressful academic experiences are normal, temporary, and can eventually be overcome. Avoid saying things like “This is easy” and “This is pretty straightforward”. Remember that what you find easy as a Teaching Assistant or instructor might be challenging for many undergraduates. 
  • Foster a growth mindset. Help your students see that their intelligence and abilities are malleable and changeable with effort and that failures are opportunities for learning. You can talk about your own challenges and failures as an undergraduate student as well as provide low-risk, low-stakes opportunities for students to fail (and learn from these failures) in your classes. You can also share Lakehead's Resiliency Project, which showcases stories from  LU faculty, students, staff, and alumni about struggles they've faced and their resiliency in managing these challenges.
  • Strive to reach all learners.  Using a variety of visuals, hands-on activities, group work, individual work, and other ways of presenting content or problems, helps all students to find a way to engage with the content. For further guidance, see The Teaching Common's Universal Course Design resources.
  • Give thoughtful and balanced feedback.  When giving verbal and written feedback on assignments and assessments, strike a balance between positive feedback (things you can celebrate with them) and constructive feedback (opportunities where they can improve).  Include some positive comments in your overall remarks to increase their motivation. Choose your words carefully – what you say matters a lot to students.  For further guidance, see the Teaching Commons Assessment and Testing section.

Information adapted from Supporting Students’ Mental Wellbeing: Instructional Strategies. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.

Classroom Presentations

Student Health and Wellness staff are available for classroom presentations/workshops. See what sessions are available and complete a request here.

Wellness in Learning Environments

Classrooms present the opportunity to reach all students, and faculty and instructors are invaluable contributors to student learning and development. Student Health and Wellness has developed resources to support Lakehead faculty in bringing wellness into the learning environment.

Fostering Well-Being on Campus

Fostering wellbeing on campus: Resources for Faculty

This guide offers Lakehead staff and faculty context for student mental health at Lakehead and practical strategies to support well-being in their classrooms.


Embedding Wellness into the Virtual Classroom

Embedding wellness into the virtual class room title page

This guide is designed to support faculty and instructors in maintaining their own health and well-being while also fostering health and well-being in virtual learning environments.

This resource is based on the “10 Ways to Embed Wellness in the Virtual Classroom” developed by Simon Fraser University’s Health Promotion department and has been adapted with updated resources and to include Lakehead-specific information, resources and branded materials.

For more information about well-being in the online environment, check out this resource from CICMH.


Thriving in the Classroom

This toolkit identifies four kinds of resilience grounded in research and evidence-based practices: community resilience, personal resilience, academic resilience, and career resilience. The toolkit offers practical resources which can easily be inserted directly into your curriculum, resources to support you in designing curriculum and utilizing pedagogical approaches that promote resilience, as well as in-depth research for those interested in learning more about student resilience.

The toolkit was developed by a diverse team of postsecondary faculty, mental health professionals, learning experts, and community partners at Colleges and Universities across Ontario (Centennial College, Humber College, Sheridan College, Trent University, The University of Toronto - OISE, Western University - Ivey School of Business, Ryerson (X) University, and the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health), with generous funding support from eCampus Ontario's Virtual Learning Strategy.
Enabling better student mental health through teaching and learning practices

For more mental health teaching practices, visit Best Practices in Higher Ed.

Student Health and Wellness Resources

Faculty and staff are key partners in helping students connect with support. Whether it’s a poster on your office door, a slide in your course intro, or a resource shared online, these tools can help normalize help-seeking and highlight available services

If you cannot find what you are looking for, please reach out to our Health Promoter, Lindsey Wachter.

Additional Resources

Whether you're looking to deepen your understanding, strengthen your classroom strategies, or support your own wellbeing, these external tools and reports are designed to complement the work we do at Lakehead and support you in your role.

More Feet on The Ground

This is a free online mental health education program that teaches participants to Recognize, Respond, and Refer individuals experiencing mental health problems on campus. The program was developed by the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) in partnership with Brock University and the Ontario Government’s Mental Health Innovation Fund and has been adapted and branded for all participating post-secondary institutions across Ontario.

Training content:

  • Comprehensive information about common mental health and addiction concerns
  • Overview of signs/symptoms, treatment options, mental health stigma
  • Facts, statistics, and stories of lived experience
  • Campus and community resource information
  • Opportunity to receive a certificate following successful completion of a brief online assessment of learning

Training dates:

More Campus Mental Health Resources
Supporting Your Own Well-Being