My SSP Team wins SFU’s Staff Achievement Innovation Award

By Sarah Saghah

The SFU staff team behind a new service that offers free, 24/7 mental health support to SFU students anywhere in the world has won the 2019 SFU Staff Achievement team award for Innovation.

My SSP (Student Support Program), implemented as a two-year pilot in August 2018, has already connected more than 4,000 SFU students to counsellors, with 69 per cent of those connections occurring after hours or on weekends.

The staff team included seven core members: Jaclyn Hayward, Wayne Heaslip, Martin Mroz, Tammy Nazaruk and Lisa Ogilvie, all from SFU Health and Counselling Services, Karin Kosarzova, International Services for Students, and Marcia Guno, Indigenous Student Centre.

“The primary impetus to bring My SSP to SFU came from students, and it has been such a rewarding experience to implement a program that has increased student access to mental health support,” says Ogilvie, who served as the My SSP project manager. “I’m grateful for the creative, dedicated team of staff and students that has been involved in implementing My SSP, and the many faculty and staff who have referred students to the program.” 

Students use My SSP for diverse reasons, including support for stress, anxiety, relationships, depression, and communication and conflict resolution.

One undergrad who uses the app says, “The transition to university life was stressful at times, but knowing that I could chat 24/7 with a counsellor about anything, and simply scrolling through the app, relieved that stress.”

The staff team worked with the Simon Fraser Student Society, Graduate Student Society, Residence Life, and Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies to develop criteria for the app and to select a provider.

“We wanted the selection process to be thorough, as well as student-focused, and to engage with the student societies,” says Kosarzova. “This meant a committee with three co-chairs: myself from International Services for Students, a counsellor from SFU Health and Counselling Services, and a student from the SFSS. It was a dynamic, well-represented committee, allowing for an inclusive and equitable process.”

Service highlights include a customizable app by keep.meSAFE, on-demand chat and tele-consultation available 24/7 every day of the year, multi-session counselling available anywhere via video, phone or in-person, a wide variety of language and cultural competency support, and online, customized life-skills support and self-help resources. The implementation involved comprehensive outreach and training for people in many areas of the university, which will continue.

“Buying a service alone isn’t innovative," says Mroz, who initiated the project. “It was the team working with My SSP for deep integration into our processes, and leveraging it as educational and culture changing opportunity that could foster an increased sense of safety for everyone in the community. That was the innovation.”

My SSP is funded through the SFU Student Experience Initiative and the SFSS.

Learn more about My SSP at the SFU Health & Counselling website.