Health and wellbeing

undergraduate student, UBC Okanagan (UBCO)

We promote health and wellbeing for students, work hard to prevent and respond to threats to student health and wellbeing, and offer dedicated and accessible programming and services that embed and support holistic student health, consistent with the Okanagan Charter.

Directorates involved

  • Wellbeing & Accessibility Services
  • Athletics & Recreation
  • Indigenous Programs & Services
  • Sexual Violence Prevention & Response Office
  • Student Engagement & Learning
  • AVPS Office
  • Global Engagement Office
  • Academic & Career Development

Alignment with Student Strategic Plan Strategies

  • 5.0 Student Health & Wellbeing
  • 4.0 Advancement of Social Justice through Anti-Racism and Sustainability
  • 8.0 Student Life & Communications

Activities

Student Health Clinic

The Student Health Clinic provides treatment and consultation for any student health concerns and offers health information and referrals for physical, emotional, or sexual/reproductive health. The clinic provides care for more than 2,000 unique students each Winter Session through around 5,000 total visits. During Summer Session, the clinic serves around 600 unique students through more than 1,100 total visits.

2,000 +

students seen by the Health Cliniceach Winter Session

5,000

total Winter Session visits to the Health Clinic

Sexual Health Services

Sexual health services provide sexual health information, sexual counselling, pregnancy testing, PAP screening, sexual health supplies and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STI Screening). Services have newly been expanded to include bi-weekly pop-up STI testing clinics in residence in an effort to normalize conversations about sexual health and provide low-barrier access to STI testing.

Counselling

Counselling provides a space for students to examine and explore behaviours, relationships, feelings or thoughts which cause concern or challenges in their life. Whether these problems are primarily impacting personal, social, or academic life, a counsellor can help to strengthen a student’s ability to cope and provide a valuable source of support. AVPS counsellors see more than 1,000 unique students each Winter Session through around 3,000 total visits. During Summer Session, the counsellors see around 300 unique students in more than 700 total visits.

1,000 +

students seen by Counselling each Winter Session

3,000

total Winter Session visits
to Counselling

Disability Resource Centre

The Disability Resource Centre (DRC) facilitates disability-related accommodations and programming initiatives to remove barriers for students with disabilities and ongoing medical conditions.

Early alert

Faculty and staff are encouraged to use Early Alert when they are concerned about a student’s wellbeing or academic performance so that students who need assistance are connected with support in a coordinated approach before their difficulties become overwhelming.

The number of Early Alert reports has increased significantly in recent years, with nearly 700 Early Alerts received between May 1, 2022 and Apr 30, 2023. Reasons for Early Alerts include concerns about mental health/wellbeing, academics (attendance or performance related), physical health concerns, conduct of safety, financial concerns, and others.

70 %

increase in Early Alert reports received from 2020-21 to 2022-23

UBCO Recreation

UBCO Recreation offers many ways to support students, faculty and staff’s physical wellbeing on campus. Offerings include the Hangar fitness centre, group fitness classes, intramural leagues, and off-campus partnerships to continue meeting the needs of the campus community while building community partnerships in a space-constrained environment.

More than 5,500 campus community members, including more than 4,700 students, participate in Recreation programming each year. With more than 30 off-campus partnerships, Recreation also hosts off-campus partner activities for more than 2,000 student participants annually.