Taking Care of Your Mental Health
Clockwise from left: Kim Willis, Director of Communications and Mental Health Promotion at the CMHA Windsor-Essex County Branch; Dr. Sylvain Roy, Clinical Neuropsychologist; Sanya Sagar, University of Windsor Clinical Neuropsychology student.
Three Mental Health Projects Rising Out of the Pandemic STORY BY MICHAEL SEGUIN THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS HAS placed an enormous burden on the mental health of our friends and neighbours. However, in light of these unprecedented times, three projects have arisen to support the mental health of those who are suffering: the University of Windsor Brief Online Therapy Project, WeHelpFirst.ca and the Ontario Psychological Association (OPA).
The University of Windsor Brief Online Therapy Project The University of Windsor Brief Online Therapy project was proposed by 31year-old University of Windsor Clinical Neuropsychology student Sanya Sagar. “As psychology students, we’re trained to find problems in the world and try to fix them,” Sanya explains. “When this pandemic started, I saw lots of people who were struggling—my family, my friends, my colleagues. Preexisting psychological difficulties were getting worse and new psychological difficulties were cropping up. I knew something had to be done.” Inspired, Sanya approached Dr. Josee Jarry, one of her professors and the Director of the university’s Psychological Services and Research Centre, with an idea. “I was in the process of moving our entire clinic online,” Dr. Jarry recalls. “Then, Sanya came forward with her proposal. She said, ‘Wouldn’t it be a good idea if we offered free, brief therapy to the people in the community?’ I thought that it was a great idea. It answers a need that is very present right now.” Sanya and Dr. Jarry spent two months recruiting peers and supervisors. The project was a massive undertaking, the resulting in hundreds of hours of work involving writing multiple versions of a field manual, applying for grants, satisfying the College of Psychologists of Ontario’s professional criteria, obtaining administrative approval from the university and student training. Dr. Jarry stresses how great the services her graduate students provide are. “I’ve been training graduate students in psychotherapy for 20 years now,” Dr. Jarry states. “I’m continually amazed by how good they are. We train them superbly here in Windsor, but it’s always fascinating to me how talented these people are. They are an untapped resource. And now, they’re using their knowledge to help others.” Aside from Dr. Jarry and Sanya, the University of Windsor Brief Online Therapy core team consists of Ashley Howard, Healey Gardiner, Noam Simon and
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Dr. Annette Dufrense. Numerous supervisors also assisted with the project, including Dr. Dana Ménard and Dr. Andrew Taylor. However, Dr. Jarry is quick to remind us where this project originated. “This was all born out of Sanya’s big heart,” Dr. Jarry states. “She’s a very kind, considerate person.” The program provides Windsorites with four free counselling sessions.“If people are not feeling better by the end of those sessions, we have a list of pro-bono providers registered with the Ontario Psychological Association that we can refer them to,” Dr. Jarry states. Visit uwindsortherapy.com for more information.
WeHelpFirst.ca Kim Willis, the Director of Communications and Mental Health Promotion at the Canadian Mental
