ELIP students practicing mindfulnessMindflow, a pre-pandemic mental wellness program, has won an international award for student support.

Mental wellness effort wins international recognition for English Language Improvement Program

A mental wellness feature of the English Language Improvement Program took top honours in the student support category from Professionals in International Education in a global awards ceremony held virtually on Oct. 2.

The PIEoneer Awards celebrate innovation and achievement across the whole of the international education industry.

ELIP implemented Mindflow to teach its students mindfulness techniques and promote optimal mental health practices. It is grounded in three concepts: inspiration, movement, and transformation.

First, having the skill to settle the mind, acknowledge pain, frustration, anger, and more is a baseline requirement to free the mind so that one may have clarity to identify opportunities to be inspired.

Second, awareness of how stretching and breathing techniques impact overall circulation and how it has an organic way of moving moods and dispositions is a tangible resource for students to utilize.

Third, transformation of thoughts, feelings, and actions is the goal in that students develop their own sense of reassurance that they have the ability and power to make their next moment better than the current.

Equipping international students with skills that strengthen mental wellness serve as important steps in building resiliency, says Anouchka Plumb, manager of language programs in Continuing Education.

She notes that Mindflow is rooted in one principle from Ontario’s 2017 action plan on student mental health, In It Together, and the University of Windsor Mental Health Strategy.

“The provincial plan highlights prevention and harm reduction as important elements of mental health priorities,” says Dr. Plumb. “Our university is promoting student mental health through a range of proactive and preventative wellness activities.”