Jorge Briones, an Event Management student at Humber Polytechnic, realized he needed help as the pressure of winter 2023 exams intensify. He was going through a mental health crisis, and he felt he couldn’t do it alone.
However, he was told the Student Wellness and Accessibility Centre (SWAC) at North campus was fully booked on the Friday he arrived at the second-floor office in the Learning Resource Commons.
He was advised to return the following week.
When he did, the counsellor assigned to his case had gone on leave, and again, no appointment was available.
For five consecutive days, Briones arrived at SWAC as early as 10:45 a.m., after his classes, only to find that all the appointments for the day were already taken. He eventually went in at 8:30 a.m. and was able to secure an appointment with a different counsellor.
His crisis, which had begun two weeks earlier, was finally addressed because he was persistent.
“By the time I got the appointment, I felt like I dealt with the issue already," he said.
SWAC offers health services, counselling, accessible learning services and peer wellness services to Humber students. Humber currently has only six counsellors for its 64,033 full-time student population or one counsellor for every 10,672 students.
Counselling appointments at Humber work on a ‘’same day, next day’’ booking basis. Counselling services can’t be booked in advance. Students often face backlogs when booking appointments, especially during peak exam season.
‘’I was advised not to book an appointment within two weeks of my previous appointment unless I absolutely needed it,’’ Briones said he was told.
A Humber counsellor sees four to five students per day and about 22 students per week.
In addition to counselling, SWAC offers Accessible Learning Services (ALS). ALS provides support to students who identify as having a disability such as hearing, mobility impairments, ADHD, low vision, brain injuries, etc.
A total of 3,782 students were registered with Accessible Learning Services in the academic year 2023-2024. Currently, there are just 9 accessibility consultants available at SWAC to address student learning accessibility needs.
The union says half of the full-time counsellors were fired by Humber about two years ago over concerns about professional standards as set by their regulatory colleges. However, the union alleged the dismissals were a result of administrative requirements not being met due to heavy caseloads. The union says it’s filed a grievance urging the polytechnic to hire more counsellors.
As far as the faculty union knows, all the counsellors let go currently have valid licenses to practice.
Humber claimed in a 2018 media release to be the first public college to formally adopt the Okanagan Charter. The charter promises the building of a healthy and inclusive community, and an Indigenous counsellor was appointed to SWAC.
The union noted an Indigenous counsellor quit in early 2024 after about a year into their tenure. The union said the reason behind the move was an ‘’unmanageable’’ caseload. The union has filed a grievance in the situation.
‘’Dismissals were extremely rare prior to January 2022. Since 2022 we have seen a significant increase in the number of dismissals within SWEL,” the union said.
Also this year, a Black counsellor filed a grievance after being fired about standards not being met. A grievance for the case is under arbitration. The union is arguing that the college failed to ensure a workplace free from discrimination and reprisal.
Neither position has been filled since. Only one of the remaining six counsellors at Humber identifies as a person of colour.
Milos Vasic, the president of Humber’s faculty union, OPSEU Local 562, said that puts too much work pressure on that one counsellor.
‘’Many organizations, when [they have] really good intentions to address equity, only hire one person [from an equity-seeking group],” he said. “And that person just basically becomes the sponge for all things Black or all things Indigenous.’’
Humber provides after-hour services through external providers as well.
International students can access ‘’WeConnect’’ for mental health and wellness support through Morcare, Humber’s international insurance provider. It offers one-hour sessions through Dialogue’s 24/7 Call Centre, providing multi-lingual services or gender-specific services.
The Canadian Mental Health Association Toronto (CMHA Toronto) partnered with Humber for a pilot program to provide support during the busy 2024 spring term as it suffered capacity issues. According to CMHA Toronto, 10 clinicians and nine administrative staff were available between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. over eight weeks.
Counsellors and consultants who spoke to Et Cetera spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of dismissal.
In an email union said that a triage appointment system has also been set in place where a clinical nurse specialist would access a student first and would consider referring them to a counsellor or additional resources.
The union said this can result in ‘’story fatigue’’ as a student works their way through the system.
‘’So, students who are already in distress are having to tell their story more than they should,’’ the union said.
The union said outsourcing counsellors can statistically bring potential wait times down but at the expense of quality student support.
‘’If you're meeting with a counsellor that doesn't work at Humber, they're not going to know about Accessible Learning Services and do a referral there,” the source said. “They're not going to know about other services on campus and help you get referred to those services.’’
The union expressed concerns about support staff such as clinical nurses being not part of the faculty union.
‘’The college is kind of making support staff employees do the work of faculty,’’ said Vasic, President of Humber’s faculty union.
OPSEU has proposed that each college have at least one full-time counsellor for every 500 full-time students. It has filed a grievance, now under arbitration, regarding hiring more counsellors. The number of counsellors is also a point of contention in negotiations for a new contract between the union and the College Employer Council.
Humber’s faculty union has said it would like the college to restore the number of counsellors to 10.
Humber Polytechnic said in an email to Et Cetera it would not comment on any demands or offers currently on the bargaining table as the bargaining process is ongoing.
‘’Faculty are a valued and vital part of the Humber community and the Ontario college system,’’ it said.
Humber added it is ‘’dedicated to ensuring that its students have access to the mental health support they need to thrive, reflecting its commitment to providing accessible, timely, and holistic care.’’
The CEC provided no comment specific to the counsellors’ situation.
A union said counsellors and consultants are feeling the stress and burnout of heavy workloads.
“They feel the weight of knowing students who are marginalized and rely on their support in order to have the best chance for success at college are often waiting too long for help or not getting the level of service they used to receive,” the union said.
