Avani Abraham | Contributor
Featured image: While the services will have a new name, all that they offered will remain the same. | Courtesy of Counselling and Disability Services
In effect this past November, the various units of York’s Counselling & Disability Services (CDS) have been grouped into two distinct departments. The aim is to simplify the selection of the appropriate support resource for students.
York’s Learning Disability Services (LDS), Mental Health Disability Services (MHDS), and Physical, Sensory, & Medical Disability Services (PSMDS) have all been jointly renamed Student Accessibility Services (SAS), and Personal Counselling Services is now named Student Counselling & Development (SCD).
The Glendon campus will continue to provide health, wellness, and accessibility support under its current name: the Accessibility, Well-Being, & Counselling (AWC) Centre.
“The main function for SAS is to help ensure that students with disabilities receive the academic accommodations that they need,” says Marc Wilchesky, the executive director of (formerly) CDS.
CDS at York serves to provide psychological and academic support to members of the York community. These services include: personal counselling for individuals, groups, and couples, crisis response and support, focused support to students with learning, mental health, physical, sensory, and/or medical disabilities, as well as numerous outreach activities within the York community.
“The main function of SCD is to provide personal counselling services to any undergraduate or graduate student in emotional distress, so they can focus on being successful in their academic pursuits at the University,” adds Wilchesky.
In regards to this name change, Wilchesky says: “We hope the name changes will help students and the University community to more easily identify the appropriate support provider.
“We hope this will help all members of the York community differentiate between accessibility services [learning; mental health; and physical, sensory, and medical] and counselling services.”
Wilchesky also notes that this organizational shift was implemented to maintain CDS’s effort in keep up with changing industry standards.
“Our decision to position the two support pillars—SAS and SCD—is in keeping with an ongoing transition throughout the postsecondary education sector in both Canada and the United States.
“In addition, current scholarship and industry practice points to a shift away from the use of the term ‘disability’ when describing services and resources toward the more inclusive term, ‘accessibility,’” he adds.
“The name change to SAS emphasizes the significant role of the accessibility unit in helping to make the campus more accessible for learning. The name change to SCD better reflects its mandate to help York students realize, develop, and fulfill their personal potential in order to maximally benefit from their university experience and manage the challenges of university life,” says Wilchesky.
These changes are primarily nominal, as each of the teams, LDS, MHDS, and PSMDS will remain intact, continuing to support students with the services they each provide—the change is only in the cessation of using the distinct unit names.
“The services remain essentially the same; but we think that the name changes will make it easier for students to navigate to the appropriate service and support,” he comments.
These name changes should not in any way affect the students who are currently registered with SAS. They should not experience any interruption in the services they receive, and will continue to be aided by their previously-assigned counsellor.
Changes began in digital and print communications over December, and were expected to be complete by this year. Links to the new SAS and SCD websites can be found on the CDS website.
However, both of these new webpages are still being updated, so students should refer to the current CDS website for information on their offered services.
