WELLNESS RESOURCES
Our SMUSA Wellness Centre
The Wellness Centre is a quiet, calm space provided for all SMU students to use. We offer snacks such as granola bars, and drinks such as juice, coffee, tea and hot chocolate. The Wellness Centre has colouring books, a Buddha Board and other tools to help relieve stress. We encourage you to stop by and use this room as you need.
Location
The SMUSA Wellness Centre is located on the 1st floor of the O’Donnell Hennessey Student Centre, near the Information Desk and under the stairs on your way toward the Book Store!
Operating Hours
The SMUSA Wellness Centre is currently closed for the Summer.
Monday - Thursday / 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Please note that the SMUSA Wellness Centre hours are based on volunteer availability and vary from week to week.
Peer Support
The SMUSA Wellness Centre is also home to The Counselling Centre’s Peer Support program! Peer Supporters are students who have lived experience dealing with mental health concerns. They support their peers by offering active listening, goal-setting, and resource referral. As students, Supporters understand how stressful university life can be. Peer Supporters are here to help with a lot of mental health concerns including managing stress, coping strategies, relationship problems, and referrals to other important resources.
On Campus Support
African NS/Black Student Advisor
Phone: 902-420-5761
Email: student.services@smu.ca
Counselling Centre offers FREE individual personal counselling, sleep consultations and group education sessions to SMU students. To book a virtual appointment, email: counselling@smu.ca.
International Student Centre provides support for international students and offers services such as Visa and study permit guidance, information for new international students, mentorship programs, help to register for local services (including the provincial health card, MSI; and banking), and more. The International Student Centre operates virtually by email for inquiries and booking virtual appointments. To request an appointment with an advisor, please email international.centre@smu.ca.
Chaplaincy Services
Phone: 902-420-5761
Email: student.services@smu.ca
Indigenous Student Advisor
Phone: 902-420-5761
Email: student.services@smu.ca
SMUSA Health and Dental Plan
Mental Health Support
If you are struggling or feel you have no one to turn to, please know that you are not alone and there is always help available. We encourage you to reach out for support from the services listed below.
Crisis Services Canada: 1-833-456-4566 (Crisis Line)
Kid’s Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868
First Nation and Inuit Hope for Wellness Helpline: 1-855-242-3310
Mental Health Mobile Crisis Line provides crisis support for children, youth, and adults experiencing a mental health crisis. Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call 902-429-8167 or 1-888-429-8167.
I.M. Well is a mental well-being app that provides confidential counselling, 24/7 private live chat 24/7, and connects you with campus and community resources. The app can be accessed 24/7, in 180 languages, is completely confidential and free to SMU students.
7 Cups is a free, anonymous, and confidential online peer-support chat for people who just need to talk. Students can connect to peers on their campus or peer-supporters from around the world. 7 Cups is available 24/7/365.
Crisis Text Line Powered by Kid’s Help Phone is a Canadian text-based volunteer-support service available 24/7/365. Just text ‘Good2TalkNS’ to 686868 to be connected to a volunteer-supporter from the privacy of your phone.
Good2Talk is a free, confidential post-secondary student helpline that provides professional counseling, information, and referrals for mental health, addictions, and well-being to students in Nova Scotia, 24/7/365. To talk to someone, call 1-833-292-3698.
Kognito provides online training simulations that teach mental health literacy to faculty, staff, and students across Nova Scotia. Mental health literacy includes the ability to recognize psychological distress, how to engage in a conversation with someone you may be concerned about, and how to make a referral to the appropriate resources for someone in need.
TAO Self-Help is an online mental health library with interactive modules to help you understand and manage how you feel, think, and act. You choose the modules you believe will help you feel well and live the life you choose.
Resources in the Community
Across Boundaries works within anti-racism/anti-Black racism and anti-oppression frameworks and provides community mental health, addictions support, and in-house programs that integrate individual support, community outreach, support groups, alternative and complementary therapies, skills building, and more.
Black Youth Helpline serves all youth and specifically responds to the need for a Black youth specific service, positioned and resourced to promote access to professional, culturally appropriate support for youth, families, and schools.
Pride Health works to improve access to health services that are safe, coordinated, comprehensive, and culturally appropriate for people who are two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual (members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community). They offer services including navigation through the health system, general health and wellness information, sexual health information, referrals, and more. To access these services, call 902-487-0470 or email prideHealth@nshealth.ca.
Black Women in Motion is a Toronto-based, youth-led organization that empowers and supports the advancement of black womxn and survivors of sexual violence. They work within an anti-racist, intersectional feminist, trauma-informed, and survivor-centered framework to create culturally-relevant content, educational tools, healing spaces, and economic opportunities for black womxn.
PFlag Canada offers peer-to-peer support to help with issues of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
Phoenix Youth is a non-profit, community-based organization located in K’jipuktuk/Halifax, Nova Scotia. Phoenix Youth is dedicated to supporting youth between the ages of 11 and 24, their families, and communities across multiple locations in Halifax. They provide health services, housing support, crisis support, money management, counseling, and more. Call toll-free at 1-866-620-0676 or email pcfy@phoenixyouth.ca.