Mental Health Educator

Job Summary

Working from a strengths-based, inclusive, and health equity perspective, the health educator will develop and implement campus-wide programming to promote mental health and wellbeing, as well as a sense of connection, community and belonging across the UBC student population. They will provide programming to support students’ mental wellbeing and attaining their learning and academic goals. Promotes mental wellbeing for students through the development and delivery of wellness education and outreach. Assesses and evaluates mental wellbeing promotion and outreach programs and services.

Organizational Status
The Health Equity, Promotion and Education (HEPE) unit facilitates and enhances student health and wellbeing learning through health promotion, projects and initiatives. Through a stepped care approach HEPE works collaboratively across Student Health and Wellbeing to support student mental health and wellbeing.

Work Performed
Develop, facilitate, and evaluate mental health and wellbeing outreach and education (75%)

• Collaborates with Student Health and Wellbeing leaders to develop a comprehensive mental health literacy program.

• Works across Student Health and Wellbeing to develop and deliver a mental health and wellbeing outreach and education program, including orientations, outreach programs, workshops, and online resources that help students normalize stress, understand how to manage stress and maintain mental health and wellbeing, and how to make informed health decisions and seek support when needed

• Assess community and individual health and wellbeing needs, including mental health.

• Review and analyze population health, including mental health data.

• Creates health, mental health, and wellbeing promotion programs tailored to diverse cultural needs. for all students as well as mental health programming to meet the unique needs of specific student populations.

• May supervise and lead student staff and volunteers, in mental health and wellbeing community outreach and education

• Collaborates with staff, faculty and student groups to design and deliver mental health and wellbeing outreach and education programs eg. Academic Essentials: Live Well to Learn Well, and Mental Health Basics

• Develops and delivers presentations and training on how to support students' mental wellbeing for faculty and staff, including how to refer students to the most appropriate resources.

• Responds to requests for presentations and training and communicates with campus partners in a professional and timely manner

• Coordinates the booking of presentations and training

• Establishes goals and key metrics for the mental health outreach and education program

• Monitors and evaluates the mental health outreach and education program

• Prepares reports, publications and other documents as required, and may be asked to sit on and participate in committees and working groups across campus.

• Works closely with communications professionals to develop content for and promote wellbeing programming for students in various channels such as web, social media and print. Responsible for ensuring student wellbeing web resources are up to date and accurate.

• Aligns programs with institutional priorities and the National Standard for Mental Health and Well-Being for Post Secondary Students

• Reviews programs annually and adjusts learning objectives, content, activities, and evaluation in response to students needs

• Reviews and updates courses on learning management system (Canvas) and monitors registration regularly

• Apply for internal and external grants

Administrative Responsibilities (25%)

• Participate and attend department and team meetings

• Respond to communication in a professional and timely manner

• Keep calendar up to date and manage time independently

• Follow unit administrative and financial procedures

• Keeps files organized and stored safely and securely, implementing unit’s filing system
  
  Consequence of Error/Judgement

Must be able to act with a considerable degree of autonomy and independence in the provision of mental health programming to students while adhering to the ethical standards of the profession. It would also have a significant negative impact on public relations and the reputation of the University and in some cases result in legal liability for the University.

Supervision Received
This position reports to the Director, Health Equity, Promotion and Education and requires a person capable of interpreting the position responsibilities and carrying them out with minimal supervision. Acts independently within established ethical guidelines.

Supervision Given
May provide supervision for project staff and/or students involved in work-study programs, and/or volunteer assignments. May delegate administrative work to program assistants

Minimum Qualifications
Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Minimum of three to four years of related experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own

- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in psychology, Social Work, Public Health, Nursing, Education, or related fields.

• Minimum of five years of experience in Public Health, Counselling, Social Work, Education, Nursing roles.

• Experience developing health promotion programs, presentations, courses and training

• Experience monitoring and evaluating health promotion programs

• Proficient with survey tools such as Qualtrics and LMS Canvas

• Proficient with MS applications including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and MS Teams

• University or college employment experience, especially in Student Affairs, is an asset.

• Experience with community engagement and understanding of collaborative leadership and collective impact frameworks.

• Experience supervising staff and volunteers.

• Commitment to serving the needs of a broadly diverse student population. Demonstrated ability to provide outreach and programming that are responsive and sensitive to the needs of specific student populations including Indigenous students, international students, graduate students, racialized students, students with disabilities and 2SLGBTQIA+ students.

• Demonstrated understanding of health equity and experience in conducting health equity impact assessments

• Demonstrated knowledge of student development theory and experience in program development, consultation and outreach.

• Experience in program and process evaluation.

• Strong interest in and commitment to effective problem solving and continuous improvement of programs and services. Possession of personal attributes that facilitate teamwork and the development of effective working relationships with a wide range of students, faculty, and staff.

• Knowledge of the unique issues facing university students and university life.

• Knowledge of treatment of a wide range of concerns that post-secondary and professional program students may experience including stress, depression, anxiety, substance use, relationship difficulties, eating/body image issues, career/life planning, transition issues and sexual violence.