The Office of Student Experience would like everyone to know that there are options to support students who advise you they have — or suspect they have — COVID-19.

Where a student writes to a staff, faculty member, graduate assistant, or teaching assistant and advises that they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or have been diagnosed with COVID-19, there are a few recommended responses you can offer.

These include:

• If the student is seeing a physician at an off-campus clinic or at the hospital, the student should continue to communicate with that person. Their off-campus physician will be their primary care giver.
• If the student is not seeing a physician off-campus, they should be advised to call Student Health Services (SHS) at 519-973-7002 and they will be able to get an appointment with one of our on-campus physicians. Note: when making this referral, be sure to advise the student they must call SHS for an appointment. SHS will not receive students at their location unless they’ve been directed to attend in person by one of the SHS doctors.
• Regardless of where a student is receiving care, take the opportunity of any communication to emphasize that students should be isolating themselves as per the direction of Ontario Public Health.

In communicating with a student and you become worried that they are not taking care of themselves, or they are struggling with parts of the self-isolation process (e.g, they can’t get access to groceries, they’re not willing to connect with a physician, or their mental health seems to be suffering), complete the University’s Care Report and someone from the Office of Student Experience will reach out to the student to offer help.

“With the support of the broader community, UWindsor will do all that it can to make sure individual students are feeling supported if they are not feeling well or are struggling with the isolation imposed by the pandemic,” says Ryan Flannagan, associate vice-president, student experience. “Thanks for supporting our students.”