https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/62030/archive/files/bfbbd6b048447bb48c6fd656325625d3.pdf?Expires=1785369600&Signature=gp-ysS%7EKJQTGNPfbqkZ22ubdSSEoPgsk1-IQmWpVDhTwogfUMc3mHNIFQc1ba0xKb33MITgdeKWecpYQ4Fl8ajw6LGPHUVhQZJ7clyiEMWn29p1N5fKQqieMGZZTKspDq1kTpDVB7K3wPY7r1l6Nis5nBT3FNw0g19nY8d89%7E7AukLZQTWe0a6QLNkcSjq6fZYECV-Dyvy3VEK%7ElWHoitn6P0Ef22%7EGKtln2BzBAf26wC7dInN8%7E9jzeTMoiTzMFhBTbCrc-y9IoQ1KC9iGUgqO58DZtweC7qlEjFm8qdcTUUJrXeeRJ9nmk-x0fBaCBVUPNYeobghgtXI2XyJk-wQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 0a212edebf726a7a7d84e88a4427331f PDF Text Text 6 News The McGill Daily • Thursday, April 5, 2007 McGill Mental Health Services still sickly graphic by Carina Sorensen / The McGill Daily archives Students could face long lines and questionable service TRISTAN LAPOINTE NEWS WRITER M cGill Mental Health Services (MMHS), long plagued by insufficient resources and a lack of staff, will likely continue to have the same problems into the coming year. The service, whose self-described objectives are “to provide high quality, easily accessible clinical services to the McGill student body,” has had a history of long waiting periods before treatment – and, once seen, students have complained of poor quality treatment. Dr. Norman Hoffman, Director of MMHS, cites overwhelming student demands as the reason for MMHS’s inability to keep up. “Right now we currently work 385 staff hours a week, and we’ll see nearly 2,500 students by the end of May,” he said. “This is an increase from all previous years. In the past four years we’ve nearly doubled our staff.” Annual reports from MMHS back this up. From 2001 to 2005 the number of student visits throughout the years climbed from 1100 to 2100. MMHS has already exceeded its time budget for this year and has been forced to add another 50 hours a week to its schedule. In the past two years, staff hours per week have been bumped from 253 to 385, and MMHS still has trouble ensuring a consultation within two weeks. Triage, a technique of determining who out of a group are the most severely afflicted patients, is also practiced at MMHS – with controversial results. While the tactic is good for clearing out backlogged appointments, it forces through the office as many as 35 students in 90 minutes – providing minimal consultation for disturbed students and sending oth- ers back to the waiting list. With the pressure high to get students seen, the office often struggles with students coming in with diagnoses from elsewhere. “We’ve had students come here with some pretty poor diagnoses and prescriptions that we’ve had to fix,” said Hoffman, adding that this was especially difficult for a student suffering from emotional problems. One U0 student – who asked to remain anonymous due to the nature of the care received – said she had booked an appointment to see a doctor at McGill Mental Health Services to get an antidepressant medication refilled. “I won’t be going back. They’re not that invested in actually getting to know you and trying to help you. – U0 student patient at MMHS After waiting over an hour, she was seen by a young medical student who explained that she would be evaluating her and reviewing the results with a doctor. According to the student, the assistant left after asking her a few brief questions – and came back laughing because she had forgotten to ask “the most important question – if I had ever thought about committing suicide.” After answering in the negative, the student received a new prescription for sleeping pills. “I started to cry,” said the student. “I said, ‘I don’t understand – I have anxiety, which ties into depression.’ I was trying to explain it to her, but she was really persistent about me trying the sleeping pills first and coming back to see her. I couldn’t even look at her,” she said. The student never met the doctor who signed the prescription – and never received a follow-up call. “I won’t be going back. They’re not that invested in actually getting to know you and trying to help you,” she said. MMHS has become so overwhelmed that they’ve resorted to outsourcing some of their demand to other institutions across the city. Some of the more severely affected students are sent to the Argyle Institute at Jewish General Hospital for treatment. The office also runs peer therapy through the Sexual Assault Centre of McGill Students Society and their own therapy group Talking Heads. But Hoffman said this was only a band-aid fix – and a real solution could be found in more medical personnel and more physical space for the office. “Montreal is suffering from a shortage of psychiatric professionals. It ends up being very difficult for us to find staff and opportunities for outsourcing,” he said. The physical offices at MMHS are also a source of trouble – with several full time staffers, including the director, forced to share time between as many as three offices. Still, Hoffman attributed the overwhelming demand for Mental Health Services to the stresses of student life. “Many students have unstable life conditions and few attachments to adults or authority figures to help ground them. That, combined with the pressures of a top tier school and a society that generally rejects emotions, is what could be creating the problem we have here,” he said. News Briefs Judicial Board could meet today SSMU’s Judicial Board – its highest decision-making body – could meet as early as today to rule on the legitimacy of SSMU’s Presidential election and the constitutionality of blood drives. The Judicial Board had been unable to meet because it did not have the three members required after a former Justice resigned. A third member was selected Tuesday. “Pending availability of all parties, the board could meet [today],” President Aaron DonnyClark said. The decision could bring a quick close to presidential candidate Floh Herra-Vega’s case against Elections McGill’s Chief Returning Officer Bryan Badali. After losing to Jake Itzkowitz by a 54-vote margin, HerraVega challenged the legitimacy of the elections, claiming that election bylaws were not enforced after many of her posters were ripped down. In the response Badali submitted last night to Herra-Vega’s case, he argued that publicly censuring Itzkowitz would have implied his culpability for the missing posters – something he could not ascertain. Another case waiting for the Judicial Board’s attention, filed by Donny-Clark, challenges the constitutionality of a referendum question that asked students whether “SSMU should reinstate blood drives in the Shatner building.” SSMU banned blood drives from the Shatner building in November after deciding that Héma-Québec’s refusal to accept donated blood from men who have had sex with men since 1977 violates SSMU’s constitution. Because no one partial to the outcome of the Judicial Board’s rulings can participate in its hiring process, nominating committee members Donny-Clark, Itzkowitz, Herra-Vega, and VP External Affairs Max Silverman – who supported Herra-Vega’s campaign – did not participate. In place of Donny-Clark, VP Finance and Operations David Sunstrum chaired the committee. – Sarah Colgrove and Dan Hercz Sunstrum may dispute GA education policy Next week, VP Finance and Operations Dave Sunstrum may ask SSMU Council to overturn a clause in a General Assembly (GA) motion mandating the Students’ Society to fight for free education. Sunstrum argued that because the motion was not debated before students voted on it at the February GA, it is unrepresentative of student opinion. “The reaction I get from most students is that SSMU is at the fringe of most political beliefs,” he said, adding that he was considering asking Council to change it. Among other clauses, the motion mandated SSMU to oppose non-consensual student fee increases, and work with other student groups toward a governmental reinvestment in education and the elimination of tuition and ancillary fees. Sunstrum said that, had there been more time to debate the motion, a more nuanced and representative policy that did not include the elimination of tuition fees could have passed. “Debate was limited on a motion that will determine our external policy for years to come,” he said. “There was a huge line...[but only a few] people spoke for it, [a few] people spoke against it, and people amending it were stupid.” Asked if it would be undemocratic of SSMU Council to strike down part of a mandate that came directly from students, Sunstrum said that elected councilors are responsible for ensuring that SSMU represents students. “Council is also a representative body,” he said, adding that he would have taken his concerns to a GA instead, but would not be at McGill next year. – Sarah Colgrove SSMU server hacked Although SSMU’s web site has already been down for a month, don’t try logging on anytime soon; it will take about a month to get it operating again on a different, temporary server. According to SSMU VP Clubs & Services Floh Herra-Vega, who has been involved in efforts to restore the web site, the trouble began long before the web site’s server crashed in early March. She said that a strange spike in activity on January 23 was evidence that someone had hacked the SSMU server. “That server has been hacked before…it’s basically just a really sketchy little piece of software and hardware, so it’s not surprising that someone would break entry,” HerraVega said. When SSMU Network Administrator and Information Technology Director Ricardo Núñez tried to log onto the server, it crashed and he no longer felt comfortable operating on it, according to Herra-Vega. SSMU then hired an external company to handle the problem; Núñez left his position Friday. While the company SSMU hired has restored the server’s data, the web site won’t be visible because the company still needs about a month to install the new hardware. Regardless, the web site will soon be redesigned and its content put onto a more reliable server over the summer, according to VP Communications & Events Gill Prendergast. According to Herra-Vega, the ordeal is costing SSMU around $35,000. Neither Herra-Vega nor Prendergast would comment on who might have hacked the server. – Lendon Ebbels � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Coverage from The McGill Daily Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data PDF Volume 96 Issue 46 Page Number(s) 6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource McGill Mental Health Services still sickly Description An account of the resource An article detailing problems with McGill's Mental Health Services. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tristan Lapointe Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The McGill Daily Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007/04/05 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource English mental health mental health Services (MHS) Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students' Society (SACOMSS)