The Schulich Peer Support Program (SPSP) is a new, student-led initiative to provide peer support to undergraduate Medicine and Dentistry students at Schulich. This program offers Schulich students ("Peers") the opportunity to receive informal peer support from trained undergraduate Schulich Medicine Dentistry students ("Supporters").
Our mission is to connect students in need of support to their peers who can help them achieve their stated goals. This may include: managing mental health concerns, navigating identity, culture, or race as part of a professional program, sharing common experiences, offering insight and wisdom, etc. Additionally, we hope to:
- Provide early, proactive support
- Facilitate referral to other support services
- Reduce the stigma of seeking help and promote help-seeking behaviour
- Work in cooperation with existing counselling and LEO resources
As a Peer in this program, you will be able to choose to be matched based on "availability" and/or matched based on "Lived Experiences".
Availability:
For students who would like to receive support without being matched based on lived experiences. This allows students to jump-right in and receive support. This is also for students who may be unsure of what areas they need support and allow them to explore what SPSP has to offer.
Lived Experiences:
For students who would like to receive support by a Supporter with similar lived experiences. You will be “matched” to Supporters according to your goals and shared lived experience, including but not limited to: mental health, socioeconomic status, race, gender, culture, sexual orientation, training level, academic challenges, and interests. Please note this program is NOT intended for those seeking advice and mentoring for career planning, such as advice on getting into a particular residency position.
Please note: students who apply to the Availability stream are able to reapply for the Lived Experiences stream at a later date.
Confidentiality is a fundamental principle of our work at SPSP. Everything shared as part of this program will be kept strictly confidential, except in circumstances when disclosure is necessary to prevent an act that is likely to result in serious physical injury or death of a person or persons.
At SPSP, we hope to be able to accommodate the unique needs of our school community. Our group of SPSP Supporters consists of students from nearly every class in undergraduate Medicine and Dentistry at Schulich, and represent a wide variety of lived experience, backgrounds, and perspectives. Our Supporters have received training on communication techniques, navigation of community/university resources, crisis/suicide management, harassment/mistreatment, cultural competency, among other topics. In rare cases, if we are unable to find a suitable match or offer the type of support you require, we will do our best to refer your to other relevant support services.
Thank you for your interest in SPSP. Please see more information about program logistics below, as well as the sign-up form. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact our SPSP Student Leads at schulichpeers@gmail.com.
