New Wellness Centre opens for students
L-R: Kelly Johnson, Chaplaincy, Sharon Crozier, Counselling,
Lois Milne, Health Services, and Debbie Bruckner, director,
are opening the doors to the new SU Wellness Centre.
The most stressful time of the school year is approaching for University of Calgary students as they hit the books in preparation for final exams next month. But good grades are often just one of many worries affecting students as the fall semester ends and holiday season approaches.
U of C students now have a new place to turn when they are feeling overwhelmed or want to seek professional advice about any kind of health complaint. The SU Wellness Centre, which officially opens today, is the first stop for students who need anything from the spiritual advice of a chaplain to a back rub from a massage therapist to a root canal from a dentist.
“Staying healthy requires much more than just going to see a doctor when you don’t feel well,” says Debbie Bruckner, director of the centre located on the third floor of MacEwan Student Centre.
“Physical well-being is closely linked to mental health and spiritual health, so it makes sense to have one facility where students’ can come for help, especially during high-stress times of the year.”
The SU Wellness Centre is a partnership between the University of Calgary and the U of C Students’ Union, and is the new home for U of C Health Services, the Counselling Centre, the Chaplains’ Centre, and a new Dental Services facility that is still under development. The centre provides a common reception area for all services, which include family medicine and walk-in physicians, massage therapy, chiropractic services, nutritionists, psychiatry, individual and couple counselling, academic success workshops and multi-faith chaplains’ support and community-building activities.
“We are confident this interdisciplinary approach can better support students because it will enable professionals to make timely referrals in order to address wellness issues from many angles,” Bruckner said. “For example, to deal with the stress of exams, our chiropractors and massage therapists can help with physical relaxation and tension reduction; counsellors have workshops on academic success and exam skills; the physicans can help deal with sleeplessness and other medical complaints that often accompany stressful periods and our chaplains’ group has a meditation room and constructs a labyrinth to help students de-stress during exams.”
The centre’s grand opening coincides with the Students’ Union’s biannual student Wellness Day today, which aims to provide free stress-relief activities and education for students in the courtyard of MacEwan Student Centre from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. as they begin cramming for final exams that begin Dec. 8.
Meera Bai receives a treatment from chiropractor Rachel Schuster.
“As a student organization, we’re very aware that the end of the fall and winter terms are the times when students are under the most pressure and we do as much as we can to promote healthy lifestyles and ways of dealing with that stress,” Students’ Union President Dalmy Baez said. “We’re going to have free massages, healthy snacks and workshops for all students as well as some fun activities like video games and finger painting.”
U of C nursing student Meera Bai says she looks forward to accessing the SU Wellness Centre as both a volunteer student counselor and a hard-working student herself.
“School can be stressful because you are always worried about getting good grades, your finances are usually pretty tight, and there are often other commitments with family and jobs,” Bai said. “This centre will make it much easier for students to know where to turn for support because they only have to go to one place everything will be connected.”
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Nov. 26, 2008