The Strengths Model

The mental health of post-secondary students has long been on the scientific community’s radar. But in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Quebec government made it a ministerial priority, thanks in no small part to the advocacy work of college and university associations. Today, the website Station SME provides an extensive catalogue of mental health resources and services accessible to students. 

Just because mental health services are available on campus, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that students will use them. Even today, a variety of barriers prevent students from accessing the services they need, when they need them. Some derive from students’ personal circumstances, such as their financial resources or time constraints, especially given their academic commitments. Additionally, the effects of poor mental health and past negative experiences may hinder students in seeking help.   

Accessing services isn’t only a personal choice. There are broader sociocultural and institutional factors at play. The visibility, availability and specificity of services in higher-education settings significantly influence accessibility. Similarly, the stigma surrounding mental health issues can discourage some students from reaching out.  

Case management: a promising approach 

Some post-secondary institutions have developed applications and ​​​websites​ to promote their mental-health services, such as the Plant des ressources at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. While it’s certainly important to communicate the availability of services, this strategy alone is not sufficient, especially when students must wade through a vast array of offerings. Case management, a promising approach used in social work, has already been adopted by a number of institutions.

In simple terms, case managers provide individuals with personalized follow-up while coordinating and facilitating access to the institutional and community resources they need.​​ Recent research suggests case management has many benefits in the post-secondary context, from helping students with the transition to campus, to holistically addressing complex​ or specific needs​, to offering appropriate responses during crises, especially those related to social​​ health. However, the academic literature on the implementation and effectiveness of case management in post-secondary settings is relatively scarce and rarely identifies a preferred approach. 

Strengths as a pathway to recovery 

In mental health, case management has been in wide application around the world since the 1980s. Various models are used, including broker, clinical case management, rehabilitation and​ ​strengths. The Strengths Model, which emerged about forty years ago, is today viewed as one of the most successful at helping individuals towards recovery. It is based on six fundamental principles: 1) everyone can recover; 2) the focus is on strengths rather than limitations; 3) the relationship is primary and egalitarian; 4) ​​​​the client directs the intervention; 5) the ​​intervention takes place in locations that are significant to the client; and 6) the community and environment are essential resources.

While at first glance this model can appear simple, in reality it demands a range of complex skills that are honed in the back-and-forth between training and real-world practice. Champions of this approach highlight the importance of professional supervision. While the Strengths Model is considered effective at assisting individuals with severe mental health issues, its implementation and effectiveness among younger populations are not well documented. Our team’s comprehensive study identified only about ten published studies worldwide on implementing the model for young adults. 

Moving towards strengths-based case management​​? 

From the above, two key points emerge: case management appears to effectively address the needs of post-secondary students, and the strengths-based approach supports recovery for individuals living with mental health challenges. Starting from this premise, our team decided to focus on adapting and deploying the Strengths Model in Quebec’s institutions of higher learning. Our initial analyses show that, to varying degrees, practitioners in these settings are already using the core principles of the strengths-based approach. Nonetheless, our findings reveal the need for structured support and ongoing training to ensure that the six principles are truly integrated into practice. 

Going forward, our ​​research will explore the adaptations needed for the Strengths Model to function in post-secondary settings. This will then pave the way for developing methods to assess its implementation and effectiveness. 
 

This article is part of a series on student mental health in higher education produced by the Observatoire sur la santé mentale étudiante en enseignement supérieur (OSMÉES) (Observatory on student mental health in higher education) and the Initiative sur la santé mentale étudiante en enseignement supérieur (ISMÉ) (Student Mental Health Initiative in Higher Education).