Written by: Bella McKenzie

 

WUSA 101 is back, Warriors! This time, for World Mental Health Day! 

World Mental Health Day is a reminder to raise awareness and efforts for mental health around the world, and to make support for people experiencing mental health issues a global priority.  

To offer support during World Mental Health Day, today’s lesson will teach you of WUSA’s student-run services that offer mental health and peer support. These include: 

      🏳️‍🌈Glow Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity 

      💬MATES 

      ✊Racial Advocacy for Inclusion, Solidarity, and Equity (RAISE) 

      💐Women’s Centre 

 

To begin, what are WUSA student-run services? 

WUSA supports a variety of student-run services that are designed to improve the quality of campus life in areas that students have identified as crucial to their success. These include services for peer support, sustainability, academic policy support, food insecurity, co-op, housing, and much more! All University of Waterloo Undergraduate students can access these student-run services and be a part of them. 

 

Glow 

Run entirely by student volunteers, Glow promotes a healthy attitude towards all sexual orientations and gender identities on the UW campus by providing a wide variety of peer support, social events, advocacy work, and resources. Glow is also committed to serving trans-identified and gender variant persons by making relevant resources accessible and answering any questions you may have about them. 

Click here to fill out a Glow Centre Peer Support Form so you can book your appointment. 

Fun Fact: Glow is the oldest continually running university-based 2SLGBTQ+ group in Canada! 

 

MATES 

MATES is a peer-support service for students experiencing social and academic challenges as well as low-level mental health concerns and stress. The MATES team is made up of trained student volunteers called MATES Peer Support Volunteers. A MATES session lasts for one hour maximum. MATES are always here to help, including suggesting on and off-campus resources and can assist students in navigating these services. 

Click here to fill out a UW MATES Request Appointment Form so you can book your appointment.  

 

RAISE 

RAISE works to partner with the University of Waterloo to acknowledge and address the impacts of racism and xenophobia, using anti-oppression approach to dismantle systemic barriers that limit the success and affect the experiences of students of campus. Their initiatives target education & advocacy, peer-to-peer support, and community building. 

RAISE provides confidential peer support for the racialized undergraduate student community, provided by trained RAISE volunteers, executives, and coordinators using an intersectional and anti-oppressive lens. 

Click here to fill out a RAISE Peer Support Form so you can book your appointment.  

 

Women’s Centre 

The Women’s Centre provides a female-positive and supportive environment on campus for women, trans people, and everyone! With their trained volunteers, they provide peer support with an intersectional lens and can connect you with resources about sexual health, healthy relationships, mental health, and more. They also have peer support hours where students can drop by for support on any and all issues. 

Click here if you would like to fill out the Women’s Centre Peer Support form to book an appointment.  

 

In addition to these spectacular student-run services, we are sharing some WUSA, UW, and community resources that can also offer support during World Mental Health Day: 

 

• Empower Me – 1-833-628-5589 

• • WUSA’s Empower Me is a mental health and wellness service that supports existing on-campus and Studentcare mental health resources with professional counsellors, a toll-free 24/7 help line, etc. 

 

• Counselling Services – 519-888-4096 

• • UW’s Counselling Services are team of professionals that provides individual or group counselling services, at no charge, in a private and confidential setting, to University of Waterloo students. 

 

• Good2Talk – 1-866-925-5454 

• • Good2Talk is a free 24/7 support service where students can talk to a professional counsellor, a trained volunteer crises responder, or search for campus and community services. 

 

WUSA wishes you the best on World Mental Health Day and we hope these resources will provide some help if needed.