Eli’s Place: Congratulations on your new role at the University of Toronto! What drew you to this role?
Adina: Thank you! I joined the University of Toronto in May 2024 as the Director of Student Mental Health & Communications in a Tri-Campus role.
What excites me about this new role is the potential to be a part of transformative change at Canada’s largest university. The student voice is so important in the way we think about service delivery and I love the commitment we have to listening to our students. As the cliché goes, these students are the changemakers of the future and I love to be a part of ensuring their success from the classroom to beyond.
Eli’s Place: Before we get into more details, please share a bit about yourself personally and professionally
Adina: I live in Toronto with my husband and two wonderful children, plus a dog!
I graduated with a Master’s of Social Work degree from the University of Toronto in 2009 (and met my husband there, who is also a social worker!) The decision to become a social worker was an easy choice – I always knew I wanted to help young people and I was passionate about designing and working in systems that lift young people up to their full potential and reduce unnecessary barriers or harms. Throughout my career as a clinician and as a systems builder, I have focused on seeing through this commitment.
I have been an individual and family therapist for over 15 years and an operations leader for the past five years, working at CAMH, Michael Garron Hospital and now U of T. Being both a clinician and an administrator helps me understand how to both build a system that works to promote recovery and wellbeing while not losing the pulse on what young people want the most in their treatment.
Eli’s Place: How long have you been involved with Eli’s Place and in what capacity have you volunteered?
Adina: I first became connected with Eli’s Place through Arla and Howard Hamer, who are cherished friends. However, the vision for Eli’s Place also touched my heart on multiple levels as a social worker and someone who has worked with youth and young adults throughout my career. I was elated at the opportunity to support such an innovative and strengths focused program for young people and wanted to share my experience and expertise.
I got involved with Eli’s Place around 2018, as a member of the Model of Care and Evaluation Committee, as a way to share my clinical and administrative expertise.
Eli’s Place: Thank you for sharing your expertise with us; we’re fortunate to have you serving on our models committee. Let’s look a little more closely at your current role as Director of Student Mental Health. How long has this department existed at U of T? How does it fit into the big picture of student support?
Adina: The tri-campus student mental health team has been in existence for just over two years. It was created in response to feedback from students about wanting to see improvements in the mental health supports offered throughout the university. Our team is committed to strategically building and optimizing effective, data-driven, and equitable access to mental health care across the three campuses and a diverse student body of almost 100,000 students! throughout the university. Our team is committed to strategically building effective, data driven, and equitable access to mental health care across the three campuses and a diverse student body of almost 100,000 students!
Eli’s Place: That sounds like a huge responsibility! What do you see as some of the challenges?
Adina: U of T is like a small city! It has similar challenges in terms of ensuring change is equitable and makes sense across three campuses in different parts of the city, a very diverse student body with distinct needs and desires. Ensuring students have strong mental health supports to navigate a stressful and demanding academic environment means we have to work very hard to navigate lots of priorities at once.
Eli’s Place: Despite these challenges, what are some of the opportunities you have identified in this role?
Adina: Success in postsecondary education is a crucial stepping stone for those attending university and we have a real opportunity to create services for students that promote health and wellbeing management and to teach students to manage the downs just as much as the ups. What we do at U of T also has significant reach across the postsecondary sector as we are the largest university in the country – something we take very seriously about our role as strategy leaders.
Eli’s Place: Funding for mental health services is usually dependent on outcomes. Will your work involve any research or data gathering?
Adina: Yes! A major part of the tri-campus student mental health team is to create an institutional mental health data strategy so that we know that the services we offer at U of T are available, accessible, equitable, and that they are effective in helping students feel more resilient, hopeful, and maintain wellbeing. We partner with Inlight Student Mental Health Research, which invests in high-quality, impactful research and scalable research innovations to ensure better outcomes in student mental health and wellbeing.
Eli’s Place: It sounds like you and your team are well situated to make a significant difference in student mental health at U of T. Let’s shift our conversation to see if we can capture some of your professional observations around mental health as it impacts young adults. While there is more awareness and less stigma, is it correlating to better outcomes?
Adina: I think there has been remarkable progress in destigmatizing mental health. Young people are leading the way in talking openly about their ups and downs with their mental health and not feeling afraid to ask for help. More and more students are accessing supports for their mental health. 50% of all visits to the university’s health centres are for mental health reasons. More students have access to the postsecondary environment than ever, as we learn that accommodation augments, rather than limits, those with mental health issues from finding success in their academic lives.
Eli’s Place: Accommodating student needs can be a challenge. Specifically in terms of serious mental illness, does the university setting accommodate students with such challenges?
Adina: Universities are first and foremost academic institutions. They are not designed as mental health facilities and so it can be challenging at times to ensure one’s needs are fully met in the academic setting. The Covid-19 pandemic has created some significant challenges with attention and learning strategies, as many students completed their high school education virtually.
Eli’s Place: What seem to be some of the prevailing messages you’re receiving from students?
Adina: Students feel overwhelmed by the demands of life, school, housing, finances, food insecurity, and more. All this takes a toll on their mental health and wellbeing. Students can feel isolated from one another and this impacts their overall health. Students want easily accessible supports where/when they need it, to ensure they can be successful in their studies even when other parts of life can feel distressing.
Eli’s Place: Can you comment on the access young adults have to treatment?
Adina: At U of T, a Stepped Care approach ensures that there are options for students that meet their needs, ranging from self-help, peer support, and counselling to specialist care. Students can now access same day/next day supports, called “one at a time” appointments. For many students, this is what they need to adjust to stressful situations. For others, they need more supports, like navigation or psychiatry consultation, which is available to them. For students with more complex needs that cannot be addressed in an academic setting, they are connected with community partners like CAMH, LOFT, CMHA. The goal is to provide students with the tools they need to ensure they can function in the university setting and beyond.
It is true, however, that many young people with complex mental illness often fall through the cracks of our system, especially as they transition to adulthood and adult services.
Eli’s Place: That brings us back to Eli’s Place! Why do you think a treatment centre like ours is needed?
Adina: Eli’s Place is one example of treatment that focuses on the whole person, ensuring young people have the tools they need to function, even as they struggle with significant mental illness and/or substance use. It combines intensive, function-focused interventions, like residential treatment settings with a strengths-based recovery model which is empowering.
As we de-stigmatize talking about mental health, we become more responsive to the needs of others. However, those with persistent mental illness continue to experience significant barriers in their lives. A setting like Eli’s Place is an innovative, person-centred solution for those who need it most.
Eli’s Place: This interview is taking place in the fall as young adults head back to school and its particular demands. Do you have any suggestions about how to manage mental well being?
Adina: Good emotional resiliency is about finding ways, from sleep, eating good food, exercise, being in nature, making connections with others; just as much as it is about treating symptoms of mental health concerns. The more we connect with others, look up from our phones, and engage in the world around us, the more we build up our ability to tolerate the distress around us as it arises.
Eli’s Place: Given the busy nature of your life and the emotional demands you must experience, what tools do you make use of to maintain your own mental health?
Adina: I try and focus on the basics- I exercise and spend as much time with family and friends as I can, and focus on keeping my stress low where possible.
But the best lesson I have learned about managing my own mental well being in this:
When I find myself in a boat in a storm, I have two choices. I can curse the storm and wish I wasn’t in it – or I can look at my boat: does it have what I need to withstand the storm until it passes. To maintain good emotional wellbeing, it’s all about focusing on shoring up my boat and waiting out the rough spots the best I can.
Eli’s Place: Thank you, Adina, for sharing your time and insights with us. Your time is precious and we’re grateful you could spend some of it with us. We wish you and the passengers on your boat smooth sailing!
Eli’s Place will be a rural, residential treatment program for young adults with serious mental illness. To learn more about our mission and our proven-effective model click here.
Adina Hauser | Eli’s Place Volunteer, Model and Evaluation Committee
The Director of Student Mental Health & Communications at the University of Toronto, Adina is a proven and effective leader in developing clinical programs for young people in the mental health and addictions system. She is an experienced therapist, proficient in trauma informed therapies with adolescents, young adults, with a focus on concurrent disorders. Adina is a member of the Eli’s Place Models Committee.
