Red Deer College will receive $205,000 annually for the next three years to bolster mental health resources on campus.

Marlin Schmidt, minister of advanced education visited the school to making the announcement.

“Students who experience anxiety, depression, loneliness, helplessness will have more resources available to them to deal with these types of issues when they come up and that will help them become better students overall,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt then travelled to Olds College to proclaim that school’s grant allocation: $135,000 per year.

The funds announced yesterday are part of $25.8 million that the province is spending on mental health resources for post-secondary students across Alberta.

Officials pointed to a 2016 National College Health Assessment survey conducted by 10 post-secondary institutions in Alberta, where more than 90 per cent of students stated they felt overwhelmed, more than 13 per cent considered suicide; one in 50 attempted.

“It’s a challenging time for young people. They’re often on their own. It’s an intense academic environment so these kinds of feelings are natural when they occur and it’s only right that we provide supports for them to deal with them when they arise,” Schmidt said.

RDC president Joel Ward said the funds will go toward five initiatives suggested by students and faculty:

  • increasing outreach activities related to mental health,
  • funding for the Students’ Association’s Mental Health Awareness Week
  • a campus mental health strategy,
  • increasing access to mental health first aid
  • mental health literacy