UofT community calls for changes in mental health policy
Content warning: mentions of suicide
Campus Police are under fire after a student in distress was handcuffed outside the Health & Counselling Centre (HCC) at UofT’s Mississauga campus.
On October 2, third-year anthropology student Natalia Espinosa, sought help at the HCC with the support of a friend, Anita Mozafari, requesting to meet with a psychiatrist. After being told by a receptionist that a mental health nurse was not available to meet and that the process for meeting with a psychiatrist could take roughly a month, Espinosa became distressed and was placed in an appointment with a regular nurse. Under “UofT protocol” however, Campus Police were called to the scene to apprehend the student in distress despite her telling them her intention to end her life, and subsequently taking her to Credit Valley Hospital.
Criticism on crisis response
Following the incident, community leaders and mental health activists have called on the university to acknowledge the arrest and revise their law enforcement policy. Beverly Bain, Women and Gender Studies professor at UTM, voiced her support on behalf of Espinosa, drafting a letter in response to the incident.
“The police represent the law. When police come, it means they are arresting you. When they put you in handcuffs, it’s an arrest. People with mental health issues should not be arrested. People who go for help should not be arrested. They are not criminals. They are in crisis and they need support.” she says in an interview with The Medium, a campus publication at UTM.
The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) have also denounced the arrest in a statement released on November 12. “The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) strongly condemns the actions taken by the HCC, the police and the policies that uphold the violence that took place,” it reads. “These actions taken by the HCC and the police are shameful and further the intimidation and discrimination that students face on our campus when accessing mental health services.”
Our Minds Matter, a non-profit student organization advocating for mental health awareness, released a petition to Ontario’s Minister of Health, Christine Elliott, calling for an allocation of funds towards better transportation and treatment of individuals with mental illnesses. The petition also calls for the University of Toronto along with the Toronto and Peel Regional Police to apologize for the wrongful treatment of students in the past, presenting a list of demands to improve current mental health policies. As of November 22, 2019, the petition has received 549 signatures.
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