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A case study using mixed methods that critically appraises the implementation of a mental health policy in higher education in the absence of evidence to inform the policy using an exemplar case from one mid-sized post-secondary institution was the motivation for this research. Explanation building was used to iteratively analyse data on rival explanations of the implementation of the fall break policy. Analyses from the surveys revealed that overall, only 36.9 per cent of students perceived an increase in workload before the break and only 29.6 per cent of students perceived an increase in workload after the break. However, the focus groups and professor interviews revealed that the timing of the fall break had an impact on how students and professors experienced the break and their perceptions on its impact on student mental health. If baseline data regarding the implementation of the fall break would have been collected prior to its implementation, we could have possibly avoided the implementation issues that arose. While this research provides an exemplar case of a fall break policy at one post-secondary institution, the policy learning is universal.

Attempting to support student mental health, many Canadian universities have implemented a fall break with the assumption it would be helpful in alleviating students' stress and anxiety. However, there is no baseline data regarding stress level or mental illness burden of students to understand its effectiveness. Using case study methodology with mixed methods, this research sought to appraise, given a lack of baseline data, the impact of a fall break on student mental health. While the surveys revealed that students overwhelmingly liked the break and perceived it to reduce their school related stress, the focus groups revealed key insights into understanding stress and coping among university students about how students like to de-stress that have practical implications for any policy aimed at promoting students' mental wellness. This research offers practical policy suggestions to help post-secondary institutions determine whether a fall break week can be effective in addressing students' stress and anxiety.

The mental wellness of university students can be critical for their success. In an attempt to minimize stress for students, many universities have implemented a policy for a fall break with limited evidence to support its intended outcomes. This case study offers a critical appraisal of the formation of the fall break policy at one medium sized comprehensive university using qualitative and quantitative forms of evidence triangulated from (1) University Student Union survey, (2) document analysis and; (3) informant interview. The lack of uniformity on how the fall break is labelled, the timing of the break and its evaluation emerged as design flaws in the creation stage that perhaps, could have been mitigated if faculty and student voices were included in policy creation decisions.

Background: The spiritual dimensions of health offer important protective benefits to young people. Yet, little is known about how concern for these is operationalised for youth in school curricula. Objectives: This rapid review examined if, and if so how, the spiritual dimensions of health were being conceptualised in school curricula and, in turn, how the curricula proposed that the spiritual health of young people is best supported. Method: Using National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools (NCCMT) guidelines, we conducted a rapid review of all 10 provincial and 3 territorial physical education and health curricula in Canada. Data included all curriculum documents containing any reference(s) to spiritual/spirituality/religion that were extracted into a master table. Coding and thematic analysis were used to categorise and synthesise the data iteratively. Results: In total, 115 curricula documents were retrieved from the web, of which 67 were included for screening. Analyses revealed how the spiritual dimensions of health are used in curricula overall and provide evidence that while the spiritual dimensions of health offer important protective benefits to Canadian young people, they are often not included in health curricula in Canada, and when they are, they are not always rooted in theory or evidence. Conclusion: Details about how the spiritual dimensions of health are operationalised in the school curriculum remain underdeveloped and vague. Some curricula offer promising ideas about how the spiritual dimensions of health can be used to support child health and well-being. However, educational settings currently provide a missed opportunity to support the spiritual health of young Canadians.

In every sector, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of mental health resources for wellbeing. Although scholars have long recognized the interdependent relationship between academic success and positive mental health, research that can be used to guide mental health service design and delivery in post-secondary institutions is relatively unexplored. Further, the experiences of practitioners, in their day-to-day operations toward understanding and responding to student mental health problems, are an under-recognized source of data that can contribute to more effective planning and implementation. The objective of this project is to use practitioner action research principles to design, implement, and evaluate a mental health and addiction services plan at Brock University in Ontario, Canada. This paper details what occurred in the plan-act-observe-reflect cycles as practitioners gathered qualitative data using interviews and the World Café methodology. Results show improvement in student satisfaction ratings with on-campus mental health services. Our experience reveals that practitioner action research is a useful framework for practitioners seeking a systematic process to contribute to both fields of knowledge and fields of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The short-term impacts of outdoor orientation programs (OOPs) have been documented in the literature for close to 40 years. While there is a fair amount of research examining the immediate effects of OOPs, there are relatively few studies exploring long-term impacts. Purpose: This study examined the important longitudinal "lessons learned" from participating in an OOP. Methodology/Approach: This study utilized a retrospective qualitative approach and employed the Most Significant Change technique to understand meaningful lessons learned. Alumni from an OOP participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analyses included open coding, focused coding, and axial coding. Findings/Conclusions: Primary themes that emerged from the coding process included community and social connections, mental health and well-being and environmental appreciation and value of nature. Participants reported learning valuable lessons related to community building, coping, stress relief, resiliency and thriving, and connection with nature. Implications: Results provide evidence supporting positive long-term effects of OOPs. A particular highlight is how participants noted the OOP helped shape their "favourite self" years after their university experience. Researchers and practitioners can use these results to inform OOP curricula and to include in program marketing and lobbying efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the early mental health of girls and boys is similar, as children age, girls tend to report worse mental health than boys. Explanations for these gendered disparities remain elusive. This study seeks to understand the social context in which mental health experiences are shaped. Utilizing a qualitative, constructivist approach to grounded theory, we conducted virtual semi-structured interviews with young people between ages 11 and 17 years (n = 20). Our major finding was that girls in particular experience incongruence between expectations about gender equality and everyday experiences of stereotypes, barriers, and discrimination. Girls reported pressures to satisfy multiple gender norms, such as traditional ideals about being feminine (kind and physically attractive) and modern ideas about being high achieving and “smarter than boys.” Findings suggest that young people are unequipped to navigate the incongruence between the expectation that they live in a gender-equal world and their experiences of gender-based constraints, nor do they appear to have the skills to critically identify the structural patterns that undergird their experiences. Explanations for gendered disparities in mental health may be related to the underlying context of discrimination, and both traditional and emerging gendered norms, barriers, and constraints. Finally, we highlight the responsibility of adults to facilitate child development in ways that are responsive to the changing faces of gender discrimination, which readily adapts to social discourse in new and subtle ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]