Untitled Item“Enough is Enough”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a ‘Mental Health Crisis’ on Campus

This major research paper is a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of ten news articles covering a series of suicides and ‘mental health crises’ at one Ontario university in 2019. The lack of support/responses led to student protests and institutional maneuvers. This CDA highlights these varied ways of responding and talking about ‘mental health’ as well as the lives of students affected and who spoke out. It also takes up institutional responses such as the physical barriers built in “suicide hotspots” and deferral of blame. Through the lenses of Mad Studies and Disability Justice, my findings point to various discourses that compete for ‘attention’ as well as confirmation of the discursive dominance of medical-institutional approaches and their power. It also highlights how much injustice there is when it comes to disability.