Raising Awareness of Mental Health in Higher Education – A slightly different conference (not nutrition)

Slightly different to the nutrition related conferences I have been too recently but another very important area of our well being!

Last week I attended the RAMHHE conference. Raising awareness of mental health in higher education is a campaign to raise awareness of mental health in Higher Education. It was founded by Josephine Nwaamaka Bardi who is a PhD student from the nursing faculty. She is a part time lecturer in London and from working from students she learnt a lot about the large issue of mental health in higher education.

The objective is to ‘remove stigma around mental health in higher education and act as an inclusive forum for staff, students, mental health experts and service providers to discuss views and perceptions of mental health and recovery.’

This was a fantastic first conference.

It started with 10 minutes of mindfullness for everyone to take part in.

Introduction presentations included facts and figures about mental health in students, welfare services that are in place in University departments and across the University as a whole. The rising distress of students and the pressures on students today were also discussed – including social media and the pressure to have ‘the best time of your life’.

‘We all have mental health’  – introductory talks asked the audience how many people actively think about looking after their mental health as they do their physical health.

There were then smaller discussion sessions. I joined one about stigma and loneliness which we had lots of discussions. There were a group of psychology students who had come from another university. We had a really interesting discussion about stigma and loneliness and where support is needed. Everyone made great contributions to the session. The other one I went to was about creativity. We had to make something out of a piece of paper to represent something in the arts or humanities that we used to or still do. I tried to make it into a picture like the art I did in school. Creativity is good for well being!!!!!!!!!! It reminded me how much I miss the creative things I used to do. I find it hard to find time to prioritise more creative hobbies when studying, uni work always comes first!

There was a fantastic hot lunch provided and a smoothie bike! (See Instagram)

There were stands including student minds, nightline, student advice centre, disabled students teams  etc for people to go and talk to.

There were then more presentations including ‘The arts of recovery’ – the University professor who had run the earlier session gave a personal reflection on recovering from mental health issues and how he uses his creative practises. There was personal stories of mental health issues in higher education, an intense presentation about the ‘healing space’, lessons from around the world for better mental health and support in postgraduate settings.

The attendees of the conference were asked to give their feedback on the event and the topics discussed. This will be written up as part of the research and presented to help make positive differences to student well being in the future!

Read more about RAMHHE at ramhhe.org