Manager of Student Wellness

UNIVERSITY OF ST. MICHAEL’S COLLEGE JOB OPPORTUNITY

PROFILE

The University of St. Michael’s College is a college federated with the University of Toronto (UofT) and is home to a vibrant community of over 5000 students, over 500 of whom live on campus. The campus is a vibrant, diverse, and welcoming space that fosters a lively community of students, faculty, and staff dedicated to transformative education and programming focused on holistic wellbeing.

POSITION SUMMARY

Reporting to the Registrar and Director of Student Advising, the Manager of Student Wellness is responsible for the development, coordination, delivery, and evaluation of a wide range of wellness programs and initiatives, designed to improve the overall mental health of St. Michael’s College (SMC) students. These may take the form of one-on-one clinical counseling sessions, sub-clinical therapeutic conversations, group therapy sessions, educational initiatives, and special wellness and training programs. The Manager of Student Wellness will be responsible for establishing, supporting, and managing the functioning of the SMC Care Team, a cross-unit team of professional staff that ensures a professionalized, coordinated, and student-centered approach to identifying and responding to emergent student wellbeing-related concerns. They will supervise and they will provide support to the Wellness Counsellor to ensure best practices are followed and to build additional counselling capacity. They will promote student success and development by devising and supporting holistic wellness programming within the College. They will foster close collaborative relationships with academic advisors in the Registrar’s Office, with faculty, with on-location supports (Learning Strategist; Academic Success Centre; Accessibility Advisor), with Residence Life staff, and with the Principal’s Office.  They will also foster close professional relationships with UofT partners such as Student Crisis Response, Health & Wellness, the Office of Student Life, the Centre of International Experience, and Accessibility Services.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Counselling, Triage, and Referrals Management

• Manages SMC’s relationship to U of T’s Health & Wellness Centre and the on-location counselling program, ensuring local consultation and effective and timely access to University of Toronto resources and appropriate clinical expertise and/or external resources.
• Supports the on-location Wellness Counsellor with service navigation and case management to provide continuity of care by effectively utilizing University or external community resources/services.
• Provides leadership and supervision to professional staff, student staff, and volunteers.
• Recruits, hires, evaluates performance, and terminates, if required.
• Works closely with the Registrar’s Office and staff in Residence Life to support students requiring accessibility accommodation or who are experiencing mental health challenges or crises, serving as a connection to University of Toronto Crisis Response counsellors.
• Provides individual on-going support and case management to students in difficulty, after the initial crisis period has passed (when appropriate).
• Acts as a resource for students in need of personalized support, one on one consultation, or internal service referrals (i.e. to Registrar, Learning Strategist, Academic Success Centre, Community Safety Officer, University of Toronto’s Sexual Violence Prevention and Support Centre, etc.).
• Leads on the formation, implementation, and administration of the SMC Care Team.
• Maintains a secure online calendar for bookings.
• Chairs weekly On-Call Support Staff Debrief meetings (to discuss concerns that arise during on-call shifts or cases brought to the attention of USMC offices, and collaborate on establishing, documenting, and implementing appropriate procedures and means of best providing student care).
• Establishes professional relationships and networks with Toronto-based mental health agencies to maintain awareness of current resource availability and eligibility.
• Ensures that required standards of confidentiality and privacy are maintained through PHIPA, as well as best practices in terms of note taking, record keeping, and record storage.
• Consults with Wellness Counsellor and, where relevant, academic advisors and other partners on complex cases, to ensure appropriate treatment, referrals, and management of academic progress and fees.

Coordination of Wellness Programming and Initiatives: 

• In collaboration with senior management, designs and implements evidence-based, high-impact health promotion, community, and educational programs and activities, with the goal of fostering overall positive health, healthy relationships, self-awareness, and resiliency within the student community (program topics may include: social isolation; loneliness, stress and anxiety; healthy relationships, body image; consent and sexual violence; sexual identity; celebrating diversity; and cultivation of personalized self-care practices).
• Researches, establishes, and maintains easily accessible wellness resources for USMC staff and students.
• Collaborates with relevant offices to formulate and deliver programming and to create and share health promotion materials to the student body using social media and other communication strategies.
• Directs, guides, and coaches staff to achieve departmental goals and outcomes.
• Forecasts staffing and budget requirements for the wellness program and works closely with the senior management to determine departmental priorities and funding on an annual basis.
• Facilitates suicide prevention and applied suicide intervention skills training (SafeTALK and/or ASIST) for student leaders/staff, dons, and staff/community members.

Special Programs: 

• Helps to support and oversee student initiatives/activities relating to overall health and wellness.
• Provides training and educational workshops for all students, as well as advanced training and application for student leaders and staff (e.g. stress/conflict management, resilience training, suicide awareness, mental health alertness).
• Develops and administers assessment of programming to ensure best practice and the use of relevant, evidence-based interventions.
• Participates in planning the programming/resources for don training, Orientation week, and other relevant events.
• Works with the Office of Advancement to promote the goals of the ‘Being Well at SMC’ campaign.
• Coordinates guest speaker student information sessions on health and wellness topics.
• Participates in events and committees to represent the College within the University of Toronto where appropriate.
• Provides support and resources for sexual assault cases in collaboration with Campus Police, UofT Crisis Response Team, Community Safety Office, Sexual Violence Prevention and Report Centre, and other resources as appropriate.
• Commits to ongoing training and professional development to remain current as a student service/mental health professional.
• May be asked occasionally to fill in to accommodate special circumstances or serve in a “third-tier” capacity to support professional residence staff on the on-call rotation.
• Other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Master’s degree in counselling, Social Work, Public Health, Physical Education and Kinesiology or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum of two (2) years’ experience providing individual assessment and counselling with emphasis on academic assessment and counselling or related experience.
• Minimum of two years’ experience within a university setting.
• Interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills to provide guidance and leadership on student retention issues.
• Experience consulting with, and providing referrals to, community support services.
• Experience in the development and implementation of student programming.
• Conflict resolution and mediation skills to assist students with personal or academic issues
• Previous supervisory experience, ideally in a unionized environment.
• Computer literacy with MS Office (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint & Outlook).
• Good judgment and reliability.
• Proven experience working with people from various cultural backgrounds.
• Must be comfortable working in an unpredictable and often stressful environment.
• Proven ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Proven ability to manage a complex set of competing priorities.
• Strong understanding of and adherence to the distinctions between different levels of counselling authority, accreditation, and expertise.
• Ability to exercise common sense, tact, discretion, and diplomacy.
• Proven ability to deal with matters of extreme sensitivity and confidentiality.
• Strong commitment to improving and enhancing the student experience.
• Demonstrated knowledge of customer service and information communication standards of practice in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).
• Thorough knowledge of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and management of confidential student information is essential.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

• This is an in-person position. Incumbent will be provided with a separate office or cubicle that will allow for confidential meetings.

We thank all applicants for their interest. Only those considered for an interview will be contacted.

The University of St. Michael’s College is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons/persons of colour, women, Indigenous/Aboriginal people of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ persons, people who take a religiously informed view of human experience, and others who may contribute to further diversification of ideas.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority. If you require accessibility accommodation, please contact Human Resources at hr.stmikes@utoronto.ca.