Emergency & crisis response

A crisis can be caused by events such as physical or emotional injury or illness, thoughts of suicide, harassment or discrimination, worries about your safety, substance misuse, violence, or academic failure.

Alert Campus Security with any concerns about sexual assault. If you are the victim of an assault, seek out the appropriate health care as soon as possible. Student Health Clinic will respond to these concerns as soon as possible.

The Sexual Violence Prevention & Response Office also offers a number of resources to support those who have experienced sexual assault.

If someone thinks they may be having an overdose or are witnessing an overdose, call 911 immediately — do not delay.

If you have concerns about a drug overdose and would like to learn about prevention, please refer to these tips and resources (PDF).

Students: helping yourself

At times, university life can be very stressful and although students utilize a variety of helpful coping strategies to deal with stress, things can become overwhelming. If you feel you are at risk of hurting yourself or feel suicidal…

• Student Counselling Services and Health Clinic is available Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4 pm Call 250 807 9270 and alert the person you speak with about your concerns to ensure you can be seen immediately
• Security can be reached outside of these hours at 250 807 8111
• If this feels urgent, call 911
• Crisis lines are available 24/7 at 1 800 SUICIDE (784 2433)
• “People in Need” crisis line is available 24/7 at 1 888 353 CARES (2273)

Students: helping others

If you are a student who is concerned about another student, reach out and offer support using this guide of steps and resources, provided by UBC Vancouver. Please reach out to staff or faculty to assist you.

Any community member can also reach out to the Community Response Team at Interior Health. This team of trained professionals is available to the Kelowna community to assess anyone that a community member raises concerns about.

Many staff, faculty, and students had been trained in QPR. This suicide awareness program stands for “Question-Persuade-Refer.” This program teaches people to recognize warning signs in individuals experiencing distress and educates people on how to respond to those in distress to prevent a possible tragedy. We encourage all students interested in this to attend a training session – contact Student Counselling Services/Health Clinic to find out when the next session will be.

Dr. C. Szostak’s 2013 Term 2 Psychology 361 class created a suicide awareness brochure that can be downloaded here: Suicide Awareness (PDF)

Students can also use the above contacts to help them in addressing concerns for a friend in distress.