UBC offers a range of programs and services in support of mental health – from meditation programs to reduce stress to training sessions on how to help co-workers struggling with depression.
These programs are offered free of charge to UBC departments and units, both on and off of the Vancouver Point Grey Campus. Click on the training session titles to learn more or to request a session for your workplace. Live, facilitated workshops and webinars on various topics for individuals can be found here
Training and workshops for staff & faculty
Understanding your Employee and Family Assistance Program
Offering expert information and immediate support resources to help with work, health and life challenges, the EFAP provides both short-term clinical counselling and work/life consultations to all eligible UBC employees and their dependents. This presentation provides an overview and detailed explanation of all services and access information.
Audience: Staff and faculty.
Time: 30 Minutes
Click here to request this training.
Self & Community Care: Building skills to manage stress (self-directed)
We don’t always take the time to care for and nurture ourselves and we sometimes require support in integrating relaxation and our personal needs into daily life. This self-guided course focuses on increasing mental health literacy through self-care for individuals. Participants will learn about the body’s stress response and how to identify these responses in themselves. They will have an opportunity to take a stress index, explore what self-care means to them and identify key UBC resources that can be engaged to support work life integration and positive mental health.
Audience: Staff and faculty.
Time: Self-paced
Click here to enroll
Self & Community Care: Building skills to manage stress (virtual option available)
We don’t always take the time to care for and nurture ourselves and we sometimes require support in integrating relaxation and our personal needs into daily life. This session focuses on increasing mental health literacy through self-care for individuals. Participants will learn about the body’s stress response and how to identify these responses in themselves. They will have an opportunity to take a stress index, explore what self-care means to them and identify key UBC resources that can be engaged to support work life integration and positive mental health.
Audience: Staff and faculty.
Time: 1 Hour
Click here to request this training.
Wellbeing in the workplace (self-directed)
Now more than ever, wellbeing is playing a crucial role in both our work lives and personal lives. In order to work well, we have to be well and understanding the importance of wellbeing within the context of the workplace is a great place to start. Participants will learn tools and skills to support wellbeing while working within changing environments (remote work, work from home, virtual work etc.), and will learn about a variety UBC resources or services that support individual and workplace wellbeing.
Audience: Staff and faculty.
Time: self-paced
Click here to enroll.
Enhancing workplace wellbeing at UBC (virtual option available)
Health, namely mental health, has become a topic of significant interest and concern. UBC is taking a lead in advancing wellbeing and a collaborative effort is underway to make the University a better place to live, work and learn through a systems-wide approach to wellbeing across our campuses.
This session will explore the strategies, tools and resources available to support your individual wellbeing as an employee. Using the Okanagan Charter and the National Voluntary Psychological Health and Safety Standards as a framework for action, there will also be an opportunity to discuss and learn about how workplace wellbeing can be enhanced through our everyday interactions, practices and operations.
Audience: Staff and faculty.
Time: 1 Hour
Click here to request this training.
Mindfulness and the benefits at work (virtual option available)
Mindfulness is quickly becoming a popular tool to improve both mental health and overall wellbeing. But what is it exactly, and how can it be of use in the workplace? In this session you and your team will learn about the basic elements involved in mindfulness practice and how current UBC research has uncovered a link between mindfulness practice and stress, interpersonal relationships, conflict, emotional reactivity, energy, productivity and much more.
Audience: Staff and faculty.
Time: 1 hour
Click here to request this training.
Positive coping strategies: Supporting your mental health (virtual option available)
We all have go-to habits that we turn to in times of high stress or challenge, but are these habits working for you or against you? Our mental health can greatly be supported and maintained with the help of positive coping strategies, however it can be tough to identify the right ones, and to stick with them. In this session, participants have the opportunity to learn about concepts like resilience and coping while testing out coping practices that have been shown to support mental health and wellbeing.
Audience: Staff and faculty.
Time: 1 – 1.5 hour
Click here to request this training.
Understanding mental health: How to support yourself and others (virtual option available)
Understanding mental health can be difficult. Learning how to support someone who might be in a mental health crisis can be even more challenging. The goal of this session is to increase mental health literacy while providing tools and skills to respond effectively in a caring and respectful way.
Participants will:
- Learn to better understand mental health and mental illness
- Understand structural and social stigma as barriers to seeking help
- Learn how to respond when concerned about a family member, friend or colleague
Audience: Staff and faculty, particularly those in front-facing or first-responder roles.
Time: 1.5 Hours
Click here to request this training.
QPR: Suicide prevention training (virtual option available)
QPR Training is an internationally recognized suicide prevention program designed to help you question, persuade, and refer. It acts as an emergency mental health intervention designed to save lives.
Participants will learn how to recognize suicide warning signs, approach someone who may be at risk, persuade the person to seek appropriate health services, and connect the person to resources that will help resolve crises. Suicide is preventable.
Audience: Staff, faculty and students.
Time: 2.5 Hours
Click Here to request a training.
The Working Mind: workplace mental health training for faculty & staff (virtual option available)
Established by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the Working Mind is an evidence-based training program designed to address and promote mental health and reduce stigma in a workplace setting. It includes scenario-based practical applications, custom videos of people with lived experience of mental illness, participant reference guides, and related handouts. The program is available in two versions: one for managers and one for employees.
Audience: UBC faculty and staff
Time: 4.5 hours (can be delivered over multiple days)
Participants will:
- Learn about the basic concepts, risk factors and causes of mental illness and mental disorders
- Gain the confidence, tools and resources to support colleagues who may be experiencing mental health problems or illness
- Learn about the Mental Health Continuum Model, how to observe changes in mental health, and how to take appropriate action
- Develop resilience and health-coping strategies
- Build their mental health literacy to help recognize, support colleagues with mental health challenges in the workplace
Mental Health First Aid
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is the support provided to a person who may be experiencing a decline in their mental well-being or a mental health crisis.
Course participants will learn how to recognize signs that a person may be experiencing a decline in their mental well-being or a mental health crisis and encourage that person to:
- Talk about declines in their mental well-being
- Discuss professional and other supports that could help with recovery to improved mental well-being
- Reach out to these supports
- Assist in a mental health or substance use crisis
- Use MHFA actions to maintain one’s own mental well-being
Audience: Staff and faculty, particularly those in front-facing or first-responder roles.
Time: 8 Hours (blended instruction, self-directed & webinar)
Training and workshops for managers
The Working Mind: workplace mental health training for managers (virtual option available)
Established by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the Working Mind is an evidence-based training program designed to address and promote mental health and reduce stigma in a workplace setting. It includes scenario-based practical applications, custom videos of people with lived experience of mental illness, participant reference guides, and related handouts. The program is available in two versions: one for managers and one for employees.
Audience: UBC managers and supervisors
Time: 7 hours (can be delivered over multiple days)
Participants will:
- Learn about the basic concepts, risk factors and causes of mental illness and mental disorders
- Gain the confidence, tools and resources to manage and support employees who may be experiencing mental health problems or illness
- Learn about the Mental Health Continuum Model, how to observe changes in employees along the continuum, and how to take appropriate action
- Develop resilience and health-coping strategies
- Build their mental health literacy to help recognize, manage and support colleagues with mental health challenges in the workplace
Looking for something different or a community-based program? Download our list of trusted external vendors, to further support your workplace wellbeing initiatives.
If you are a presenter, trainer or workshop provider and would like to work with us, please fill in this External Proposal Form and a member of our team will be in touch.
Services
Consulting
The Workplace Wellbeing team provides consulting services that are grounded in evidence-informed approaches and aligned with advancing UBC’s strategic commitments. If you would like to work with one of our Workplace Wellbeing Consultants, please complete the request form below and one of our team members will follow up with you.
Contact us
We’re available to provide informative presentations regarding mental health resources and support on and off campus. Email Truelove Twumasi, Workplace Wellbeing Specialist, for more information, or contact her by phone at 604 827-2350.
Please email Amanda Swoboda for mental health training and programs at the UBC Okanagan Campus.