Communicating Mental Health Disaster Preparedness at Canadian Universities: A Website Content Analysis Approach

Universities represent a unique context in disaster scenarios, housing millions of students who are especially vulnerable in crisis situations. While universities often have various mental health services for students and staff, there is a lack of research on how those services are incorporated into disaster and emergency management (DEM) communications, particularly through their public-facing websites. Drawing on risk and inoculation communication theories, proactive messaging involving components of forewarning and refutation promote increased community and individual resilience capabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine how the websites of DEM units at 51 Canadian universities communicated mental health for disaster preparedness through the lens of risk communication, with a focus on forewarning, refutation, and resource awareness. Findings demonstrated that fewer than half of universities communicated about internal and external mental health services while 88% communicated physical safety measures. University website messages varyingly used explicit or implied forewarning such as being incorporated into guidance for specific types of emergencies like personal and campus violence, with one case where resources were provided alongside a video simulation of a campus attack scenario. Almost all university communications about disaster mental health included information about resources in lieu of a refutation for building resource awareness and student, staff, and faculty self-efficacy with two notable exceptions. Documenting the disconnect between communicating physical safety and mental health in higher education DEM, these findings have implications for research, practice, and policy of proactive DEM communications involving mental health.