Introduction
I often start my emails with the phrase, “I hope this email finds you well”. In the time of COVID-19, however, wellness has come to mean something entirely different altogether. On days where I feel ‘well’, I am clocking in 9-to-5 and mustering up the energy to turn on my camera for virtual classes. On days where I don’t feel well, I am rolling out of bed five minutes before class—if I make it at all—having watched YouTube videos until 2 am the night before. The rest of the day is spent moping around about my unproductiveness while binging Schitt’s Creek for two hours and consuming copious amounts of sweets. In brief, feeling “well” seems like an all-or-nothing sensation these days.
For law students, feeling burnt-out, anxious, or depressed is not a surprising phenomenon. Bombarded by tight deadlines, dense readings, and competition for job opportunities, law students are eight to fifteen times more likely to suffer from clinical depression or anxiety than the general population. A survey of 886 Harvard Law students revealed that approximately a quarter of law students reported suffering from depression and anxiety.
What’s novel is the compounding effect of heightened isolation and decreased overall activity resulting from COVID-19-related social distancing measures. 50% of Canadians reported worsening mental health since the pandemic began due to fear and uncertainty about the future. In a separate survey, 21% of adults aged 18-35 have reported increased alcohol consumption to cope with the negative feelings arising from the pandemic. Speaking with Debbie Ernest, the Student Success & Wellness Counselling Supervisor at Osgoode, she noted that there is a common assumption that others are doing better than oneself. She mentioned that a lack of a regular schedule and the loss of a sense of community while working from home are issues that have weighed students down in addition to the already demanding stressors of law school.
A silver-lining in this grim picture is that the legal profession is becoming more aware of the prevalence of mental health issues and Osgoode Hall is on board with similar awareness-raising campaigns. Following this, I was curious to know how mental health services had been updated in light of the pandemic. So I decided to try out the virtual student wellness services at Osgoode, including student-run social events and academic counselling, to test if the wellness I was lacking on my not-so-good days could be addressed through these services.
L&L Social Events
I thought a good place to start was the L&L social events. They’re not really “services” per se but considering a lot of students resorted to pub nights as a way to unwind from long school days, I felt that they were worth checking out. I attended two events, the cooking class and the Halloween decoration contest, to see if the events actually got people ‘socializing’.
Long story short, it didn’t. This wasn’t necessarily the fault of Legal & Lit since turnout to those events was low, and many people who had attended kept their Zoom cameras off. Though I did appreciate the diverse range of selection for events organized by L&L, the structured nature of these events lacked the relaxed, mix-and-mingle atmosphere that pub nights had provided.
Academic Counselling
I then decided to speak to Associate Dean of Students Karen Drake on the initiatives she had been working on to provide academic assistance to law students struggling with virtual school. Dean Drake had taken the role as Associate Dean of Students this past July and one of her primary initiatives was to establish a link on MyOsgoode for “Academic Support and Resources”, addressing concerns held by upper-year students on law school based on a survey she conducted earlier in the summer. “One of the things that make the pandemic is the lack of certainty”, Dean Drake noted. Having this repository of tips and resources, and an “Updates” page to keep students aware of more recent interests, was how she hoped to provide more certainty for students feeling anxious.
Dean Drake also added, “I love to get feedback from students” and that she was open to “suggestions to systemic changes” that may make virtual schooling easier in the future. She encouraged students to reach out to her if they were struggling in classes or had concerns about academic matters. Dean Drake can be reachable by appointment or during her online office hours. Though the Academic Resources site was initially difficult to navigate it provided valuable tricks on time management and note-taking once I became familiar with it. In a time where meeting and asking upper years advice on how to study is not a readily available option, the site is a reliable alternative for those who feel overwhelmed by not knowing how to prepare for incoming evaluations.
Mindful Breathing Practice & Yoga
As someone who meditates and practices yoga regularly, I wasn’t expecting much from the mindful breathing practice and yoga sessions prepared by Student Success and Wellness Counselling. I still gave them a try and, frankly, found that it was a decent option for people who haven’t been exposed to mindful breathing or yoga. Debbie’s 6-minute audio clip guiding listeners to focus on breathing was a quick way of calming nerves and taking a short break in between studying. The Monday Yoga classes were a bit simple for my enjoyment, but I was grateful to engage in the exercise in private since only the instructor’s screen could be seen. If students are looking for a more profound mindfulness practice, these resources can be found online, on the “Wellness Support during COVID-19” page.
Mental Health Counselling
Lastly, I booked myself a mental health counselling appointment with Debbie herself, partly for research sake and partly because I was having frequent bouts of unproductivity and tackling anxiety.
After booking an appointment with her through MyCareer, I was sent a confidentiality agreement and a link that I could use to access a session with her. Though I won’t disclose the details of what was said, the 50-minute session with Debbie was pleasant and went by very quickly. My initial concerns of awkwardness or poor internet connection were dispelled as Debbie made sure to make me feel comfortable. The separate, PHIPA-compliant call link allowed for a more efficient and confidential mode of communication than Zoom. Though the counselling at Osgoode isn’t meant for long-term assistance or for those with more serious mental health concerns, the service’s virtual shift proved not to be as clunky as I had initially feared.
From a later conversation with her in preparing for this piece, Debbie reiterated that students should give themselves permission to feel anxiety in uncertain times like these. “It’s ok to not be ok, and students should practice self-compassion by allowing themselves to recognize the pain, self-soothe, and give themselves a break,” she outlined. When I asked her for some practical tips on maintaining mental wellness at home, Debbie emphasized the need for us to fulfill three aspects of self-care: body, mind, and spirit. She added that part of feeding our spirit is maintaining social connections with friends and family by being more intentional about work on relationships and responsibly meeting with people in your social bubble.
Concluding Thoughts
From trying out the different initiatives at Osgoode and speaking with those who provide the services, I could gladly say that taken together, these services are helpful as short-term solutions to tackling the struggles in this new era of legal education. With that said, there is more Osgoode can do to assist its students in navigating these challenging times. Providing insurance coverage to long-term therapy for those who require it, normalizing the use of mental-health related accommodations for students and being more lenient with deadlines to assignments are some ways that the general law school environment could be made less overwhelming for students who need it.
Mental well-being is not something you can attain overnight and takes years to implement into one’s lifestyle. Additionally, COVID-19 has made it difficult to feel connected to one another and has radically altered our expectations and goals. At the end of the day, Osgoode’s buffet of mental wellness resources only serves as a starting point to finding the habits and tricks that fuel you in the long term. For me, it’s been weekly Zoom calls with good friends, fostering a cat, and a little self-compassion that have made these times bearable. I hope you find something that works for you too, and if I ever send you an email, I hope that it finds you well.
