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Blog post

What’s a “Health & Wellness” Department?

November 7, 2016
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By Gaya Arasaratnam


Sometimes, a rose is not a rose by any other name.

At Concordia, Campus Wellness and Support Services is a Health and Wellness department that brings together disability services, health promotion, counselling, psychiatry, and primary health under a single offering. Not all campuses operate this way. Some don’t cluster their wellness services, while others host different units. They may include any of the following:

  • Athlete Therapy Clinics
  • Health Research Centres
  • Counselling Services
  • Disability Services
  • Health Promotion Programs
  • Mental Health Clinics
  • Primary Health Clinics

Inclusion Criteria

In large part, inclusion depends on institutional priorities, cultures, and histories.

On some campuses, Disability Services are part of “Learning Success” departments while on others, they fall to “Health and Wellness” because they accommodate physical and mental disabilities and are often funded by governments that require a medical diagnose before assistance can be offered. Similarly, on some Canadian campuses, Health Promotions is part of a primary health clinic or a Recreation and Athletics departments, while on American campuses; they are sometimes part of Student Life and work at the intersections of health education and high-energy events.

University priorities also dictate org charts. In some institutions, counselling and medical personnel are independent contractors while at others; they are salaried, permanent staff. Similarly, on some campuses, counselling and medical services are privatised. Org charts influence how change efforts are done.  At Concordia, all our wellness staff – with the exception of physicians (family doctors and psychiatrists) – are all on payroll.

Inclusion’s Challenge

Inclusion brings joys and challenges as you reconcile different models, thinking, and approaches.

Disability and Health Promotions, for example, don’t have therapeutic relationships in the same way that Counselling and Health Services do. Health Services speak of “Eating Disorders” while Counselling talks of “Disordered Eating,” and depending on the unit, we serve “patients”, “clients” or “students.” These differences in vernacular are far from trivial. They have philosophical underpinnings that can spark frustrations about how we don’t all speak “the same language.” However, “speaking the same language” is not nearly as useful as being multi-lingual.

How do we get there? Immersion, patience, a heck of a lot of forgiveness, and attention to culture, operational structures and processes. We’ll open the books on all of these.

Gaya

 

 

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