Providing effective support for students facing mental health challenges is one of the most pressing issues facing Canadian universities and colleges today. According to the council group Ontario’s Universities, the number of students on college and university campuses with identified mental health conditions has more than doubled over the past five years, with growing numbers of students reporting feeling anxious and depressed.
“For all the wonder and excitement that comes from being a university student, there’s also the pressure that’s brought on by things such as multiple looming deadlines, social challenges and increased autonomy. This environment can affect any student’s mental well-being,” says Catherine Sabiston, a professor at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education and Tier II Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Mental Health.
She studies the link between mental health and exercise among people at risk of inactivity and mental health problems, including mental health service users, cancer survivors and sport participants across the lifespan. In 2015, she helped launch MoveU.HappyU, a six week individually-tailored and supervised physical activity program designed to increase physical activity levels of students seeking mental health treatment.
“The impetus for the program came from our desire to work with U of T’s Health and Wellness services, so that they could refer students in need to a dedicated exercise program where they could develop physical activity as a lifestyle strategy to help mitigate symptoms of mental illness,” she says.
According to Sabiston, there are physiological, psychological, social and even historical theories on how physical activity improves our mental health, from giving us much needed breaks from the daily grind to providing us with an improved sense of confidence and social connectedness.
“Being active is in human nature. Our body temperature rises when we’re active and this sense of warmth is something that is highly tied to feelings of comfort and support. Being active also releases brain chemicals that trigger positive reactions in the body,” she says.
Participants in the MoveU.HappyU program receive weekly one-on-one physical activity and behavioural coaching, during which they learn exercise techniques and strategies to set goals, overcome barriers, reduce stress and increase coping skills. Early evaluations of the program have confirmed a marked decrease of anxiety and depression among the participants, while showing an increase in their levels of physical activity and psychological well-being. They also revealed a readiness on the part of participants for a follow up, group based training, something the program couldn’t deliver on its own.
Sabiston approached Luc Simard, assistant director of physical activity, equity and client services at the Faculty, for help. In the past year, U of T students made close to half a million visits to the Faculty’s athletic facilities, taking advantage of the Sport & Rec’s myriad of physical activity offerings, from drop-in programs and registered classes to group fitness classes and personal training. But not all students were equally represented, with female and international students historically making less use of the division’s programming.
As it happened, Douglas Rosa, a fitness and performance coordinator on the Sport & Rec team, had just completed a master’s thesis with Sabiston in which he explored ways of better integrating international students into physical activity programming that exists on campus. Rosa’s study revealed that international and domestic students are no different in terms of their overall levels of activity, which start to decline in adolescence. However, they seem to differ in their beliefs and attitudes around physical activity, with one suggestion being that international students may not value physical activity as a stress management strategy to the same extent that domestic students do.
This was a light bulb moment for Sabiston and Simard, who realized an expanded MoveU.HappyU program could also benefit international students, who have always been welcomed into the program, but not intentionally targeted.
“International students experience all the same stressors as all other students, but for many of them these are coupled with the challenge of trying to fit into a new cultural and language environment,” says Sabiston. “We want to ensure that all students on campus are equally represented and feel that they have an equal opportunity to benefit from the positive effects of exercise.”
Boosted by the International Student Experience Fund (ISEF) grant, she and Simard set about to raise awareness among international students about the benefits of physical activity, while increasing the Faculty’s understanding of what international students want in physical activity programming. At last, MoveU.HappyU could begin to expand its capacity and reach.
While the program continues to serve domestic students seeking mental health support, there is now a concerted effort to draw international students dealing with mental health challenges arising from the stress of acculturation. Referrals to the program still come from health professionals at Health and Wellness, but may also come from dons of residences, deans of students or embedded counsellors in different faculties, departments and colleges. Finally, those who complete the six weeks of individual physical activity and behavioural coaching now have the option of signing up for six weeks of co-ed or women’s only high intensity interval training (HIIT) classes in a group setting.
The HIIT portion of the program is overlooked by the Faculty’s Assistant Professor Jenna Gillen, who, in another instance of serendipity, was looking for opportunities to test some of her research interests in HIIT in the real world. When she learned that MoveU.HappyU was looking to provide its graduates with a follow up group based training program, the stars aligned.
“We’ve done very controlled laboratory studies that show HIIT can improve fitness and a range of health markers in recreationally active or inactive adults, so I wanted to offer it in an actual recreational community setting, like the gym in Goldring Centre, to see if we could achieve similar health and fitness benefits,” says Gillen.
She worked with undergraduate kinesiology student and personal trainer at the Faculty Sabrina Vicinanzo to develop an exercise protocol for the HIIT classes, which involves exercising hard for one minute, followed by one minute of rest and repeating that pattern ten times. The specific exercises change each class and include a variety of movements that use minimal to no equipment such as burpees, step-ups and body-weight squats. With a five-minute warm up and cool down, the total time of the class is only 30 minutes, making it easy to work into busy student schedules.
Zhuangyi*, an international student referred to the program by Health and Wellness, has no qualms about it being time well spent. She and 93 other students who went through the first incarnation of the MoveU.HappyU program were invited to join the HIIT classes after completing the individualized training.
“This is a really good opportunity. Having a free trainer in a small class setting is awesome. She sees to it that you are doing the exercises and even though they’re hard, your body feels better afterwards,” she says. “On my own, I’d probably give up half way through, but with her, I can see that I actually feel better if I force myself to do the work and that becomes a good habit later on.”
Zhuangyi particularly appreciates the social dimension of the MoveU.HappyU program, saying it gives participants an opportunity to develop trusting relationships with each other and their trainers, all of whom are students or alumni of the Faculty and certified personal trainers.
“It’s so easy to get sucked into your assignments at this time of the year that you don’t want to ‘waste’ any time on other things. But, I think setting aside some time to exercise every day is actually helpful, because you need to step back from your studies every once in a while to clear your head. It’s also going to improve your sleep quality,” she says.
That’s exactly the type of behavioural change the program hopes to inspire, says Sonia Jain, a graduate of the Faculty’s Master of Kinesiology Program (MPK) and certified personal trainer, who facilitates MoveU.HappyU’s one-on-one physical activity and behavioural coaching.
“The biggest breakthrough is when participants recognize how exercise benefits their mental health, acknowledging that it is something they can do to counter the negative symptoms of mental health challenges,” she says.
Over the next year, Sabiston and Gillen will measure and compare the differences in mental health and physical fitness of the participants before and after starting the individual and group training sessions, but evaluations of the program will also be important from a programming perspective.
“We want to understand what delivery model works best and if there’s anything that’s missing,” says Sabiston. “The bottom line is, we want to create a welcoming environment in our Sport & Rec programs and athletic facilities for all students on campus, because we know that if we can improve their chances of being active, we can improve their mental health.”
To learn more about MoveU.HappyU see moveu.ca/moveuhappyu.
*Name changed to protect student’s privacy.