The Confluence of Mental Wellness and Online Education: The Essential Role of an Innovative Graduate Programme in Responding to Canada’s Mental Health Crisis and Supporting Progress Towards the UN’s SDGs

Higher education plays an essential role in the achievement of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This chapter focuses on the interrelationship between SDG3 (health and well-being) and SDG4 (quality education) given the growing need for accessible mental health support. Yorkville University, one of Canada’s largest private universities, offers an innovative Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology (MACP) programme that teaches over a thousand students annually. Adopting a small-class, asynchronous, online learning design, supported by a 30-week supervised practicum placement, the programme provides students with the opportunity to learn and apply theory to practice while living at home and maintaining employment and other responsibilities. As such, it tends to attract mature students (average age 36) from a variety of professional backgrounds, many living in remote communities, and from every province and territory in Canada. Through Yorkville’s accessible learning model, these students become practising psychotherapists, counsellors, and psychologists, supporting the mental health needs of people within their own communities and beyond.