Mental Health Promotion

Promoting positive wellbeing and raising awareness of issues that impact our student population is key in helping us to foster healthy attitudes towards mental health.

'Mental Health Promotion' is one of the four priority areas of the University's Student Mental Health Strategy, alongside: Leadership; Mental Health Support; and Impact.

Our mental aim

• We want to work proactively - and in partnership with the Students’ Association and the Sports Union - to promote improved student mental health and wellbeing and to campaign against stigma.
• We want to integrate healthy behaviours and promote positive mental health within the university’s educational and research mission, within the curriculum and in our co-curricular activities.

What we are currently doing

• We promote a wide-ranging programme of activities and events for Mental Health and Wellbeing Week and our #LetsTalk campaign.
• Our work on student ‘sense of belonging’ has put forward a range of recommendations relevant to improved student mental health.
• We work in partnership on student communications, drawing in teams across the University, including Residence Life, the Students’ Association and the Sports Union.
• We have developed a range of supportive links with local mental health services external to the University.

What we want to do in future

• We will develop an annual student mental health promotion plan, with collaborative contributions from across the University to cover a wide range of issues relevant to student wellbeing.
• We will continue to develop our student mental health services across the proactive/ responsive spectrum.
• Our new Health and Wellbeing Centre, along with our service bases across the campus, will act as a focus for mental health and wellbeing promotion, and as a base for related events and activities.
• We will seek to consolidate our work on student ‘sense of belonging’ to sustain best practices into the future.
• Our Doctoral College will promote improved student wellbeing as a key strand in their work with research students.
• We will work with colleagues on the Curriculum Transformation Programme to embed wellbeing and self-care within the curriculum across the University.