Fostering a supportive student experience
By Nina Ambros
In today’s world, students can face many stressors and pressures. Being a student at a top University, and doing a professional program like Dentistry, can be taxing for many.
When pursuing a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree, students often spend over 40 hours per week in class or in clinics. The program pushes their boundaries, and they are required to demonstrate the highest levels of professionalism and dedication.
“It’s important to cultivate a culture where students feel safe and seek support if they need it.” says Samantha Atwood-Freeman, Registrar. “We want to support our students beyond the classroom.”
Maintaining a dialogue
Samantha leads the Student Services Office that aims to assist students in meeting academic and personal challenges. There are many ways in which Student Services maintains open communication with Dentistry's students. Students can always email studentsevices@dentistry.utoronto.ca or drop by their office in room 104B on the main floor.
The Faculty also has a Wellness Committee chaired by the interim Dean, Dr. Laura Tam, and composed of various stakeholders, undergraduate student reps from each class, graduate student reps, staff and faculty reps and members from the leadership team. The group works on developing a wellness strategy and wellness initiatives for students, faculty, instructors and staff.
“Wellness continues to be a priority at the Faculty and at the University of Toronto. We need to be actively mindful about the well-being of others. I am committed to maintaining a dialogue about mental health to help reduce stigma, increase awareness, offer support, find connection and build resilience.” says Dr. Tam.
In addition to the Wellness Committee, the Faculty hosts a student-staff relations meeting, where issues of importance to students are discussed monthly. The meeting is attended by student leaders and senior leadership members, along with the director of clinics and registrar.
Supporting health and wellness
The main campus provides a wide range of immediate and long-term health and wellness services to empower faculty, staff and students with the resources needed to support their roles within the Faculty, as well as their own mental health journey.
Health and Wellness at U of T aims to provide all students with accessible and timely care. Dentistry has an embedded counsellor, Laurie Coleman, who is part of the on-campus mental health team. She provides service Mondays to Thursdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at 500 University Ave, a four-minute walk away.
This counselling service aims to connect students with a counsellor in a timely fashion to get the support that they need. The counsellor is familiar with other campus and community supports and can help students find and connect with other supports, if needed. Many students find it helpful to meet with a counsellor to have a space to talk about these issues and to obtain professional support in managing them. Dentistry students can also access a full range of physical and mental health services by calling 416-978-8030, and pressing 2 for physical health supports, and 5 for mental health supports.
Dentistry is also working on a new digital wellness resource that will be available to students through Quercus. The portal will provide several resources easily accessible in one central place, including the Dentistry Counsellor contact information, wellness resources and additional student life resources. “We will be launching this new digital tool this winter.” says Samantha.
Students supporting students
To prioritize student well-being and connections, the Dental Student Society runs the “House System” Initiative. The initiative places every DDS student in one of 12 houses with approximately 37 other students from every DDS year. Each house hosts both a faculty mentor as well as an upper year mentor.
There are two main parts of the House System: the social part, connecting students from all years, and the competition part, where attending events can win participant points for their house and for individual awards.
Each house is named after a street in Toronto with its own colour, logo, and unique name based off a dentistry term, such as The Carlton St. Crowns and The Lakeshore Loupes.
Crafting a rewarding student experience
Fostering a positive student experience is integral to providing a rewarding education to students. The Faculty is continually gauging the student experience. In 2022, Dentistry partnered with U of T’s Innovation Hub to better understand some of the challenges that students may face.
“We are always evaluating our services to make sure that they are meeting our students’ needs. We are doing our best to be responsive to our students.” says Samantha.
If you are a current Dentistry student, and have a suggestion on how we can do things better, or require support, please stop the Student Services Office in room 104B or email studentservices@dentistry.utoronto.ca.