The first year of a new mental health program at the University of Guelph has been such a success the initiative has already been expanded.

Jeff Stanlick, with Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington, has looked at some of the concerns on campus.

“There are students who are struggling of course, with sometimes self-harming behaviour, some symptoms of depression [and/or] anxiety,” he told CTV News.

The pilot program is called Project Impact, or Integrated Mobile Police and Crisis Team. Trained mental health professionals are placed on campus four days a week so they can provide student support after hours.

During the first year of the program, there were a total of 116 visits recorded and a Project Impact worker attended 13 live calls. Of those, 23 per cent of calls were diverted from police, meaning no officers were required to attend. In addition, 76.9 per cent of calls were diverted from local hospitals because of the support students received from the team.

Stanlick said those numbers show the program is working.

“There are times where the hospital is appropriate, but they are few and far between. There’s a lot of opportunity to connect people with on-campus supports, community supports and other options.”

For students, Project Impact offers help where and when they need it.

Trish Schmidt, the manager of counselling services, said this approach allows for better outcomes.

“For folks out there, that might not seem like a lot of calls. But you have to remember every one of those calls could potentially be a suicidal student or someone experiencing significant mental health problems.”

Schmidt said the options before Project Impact were a hospital visit or a call to a crisis line, but now students can access proactive and reactive continuing care.

“They can see the same person or they know what to expect,” she explained. “They know it’s not going to be: ‘What’s going to happen next, am I going to hospital?’”

Schmidt calls it a unique model for campuses and has shared details of the pilot program with her university colleagues.

The University of Waterloo will also be trying it out.

“It’s important for us to be readily available, to meet people where they’re at,” said Stanlick.

The next step for the program is securing sustained funding.