Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: In early 2022 my only sibling (F16) was diagnosed with anorexia, body dysmorphia and anxiety. Despite significant deterioration in her condition throughout the year the family was unable to access sustained treatment for her due to a chronic shortage of practitioners in the Ottawa Area. By September she was significantly underweight, emotionally unstable and threatening self harm on a regular basis which created an environment of fear and emotional trauma in my home. While my parents and I struggled to support her the impact of her illness negatively affected all of our mental health. My mother took a leave of absence from work to take my sister to and from appointments and both she and I were diagnosed with and received treatment for major depressive disorder.

In September 2022, the same week I began first semester classes my sister was admitted to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Eating Disorders program for intensive treatment under the care of a multi-disciplinary team. Part of the treatment included family-based therapy which they strongly encouraged me to participate in as part of the immediate family. This meant that most Fridays following my 10:30am Physics class I travelled back to Ottawa to participate in therapy sessions and support my sister and my family, returning to Queens late Sunday evenings.

The chaotic environment at home was not conducive to study so there were limited opportunities to complete course-work during these visits. While I am glad that I was able to support both my sister and my parents and am grateful to the treatment team because she is making progress this period impacted my mental health and my ability to focus all of my attention on my studies.
While I completed all course requirements, met all submission deadlines and sat all required exams the results that I achieved were significantly lower than I am capable of, impacted by the events at home in the following ways:
I was unable to complete work or study on weekends due to involvement in my sister's therapy and supporting my parents.
I found it difficult to concentrate for extended periods of time due to anxiety related to her condition and the dread of travelling home each weekend to an emotionally charged and often chaotic environment.
My own mental health deteriorated affecting my sleep, appetite and overall wellbeing, and
I felt an unreasonable pressure to not burden my parents further with my worries and struggles and suffered from severe anxiety around failing exams which resulted in physical symptoms of nosebleeds and panic attacks DURING exams.

Recognizing the impact all of this was having on my chances for success I did take the following steps:
Attended weekly sessions with a registered mental health practitioner,
Participated in weekly help sessions for Math and Physics provided by the faculty and paid for and participated in privately run Course Cram offerings prior to exams to increase my understanding of the subject matter,
Sought help from lecturers and tutors on subject matter I found particularly challenging
Attended ALL lectures and tutorials (routine is an important part of my therapy for depression), and
Met regularly with a peer mentor and bounce-back support.

Please note that my treating psychologist is willing to provide a letter of supporting detail if it is determined that it would support this application.