University Mental Health Day 2022: Marshalls new e-learning course made with students, for students

March the 3rd marks University Mental Health Day, an issue that is so important and must be addressed. Students of all ages deal with different issues whilst at university – for some, it is the first time they have moved away from home and have to learn how to live with others and can come with its challenges. Moving to a new city, balancing work, and social life, and looking after yourself can be overwhelming, so it is important that students know how to check in on their mental health.

At Marshalls, we have created our new, student mental health course in collaboration with the University of Brighton. The course features a podcast that guides students through the course and encourages mindfulness throughout the course. It also features real life accounts from students about their times at university, which hopefully help remind students that they aren't alone in whatever they are struggling with.

Mark Crabtree, an expert organisational consultant, and one of people who helped deliver this course, said the following:

In the State of the Union Address on March 1st, President Joe Biden said?“lives and education have been turned upside-down.” In his first State of The Union address he?highlighted the pandemic’s blow to student mental health and fixed some of the blame on social media. Closer to home, in Scotland, The Mental Health?Foundation is launching?Thriving Learners, the?largest study of student mental health north of the border. The?Centre for Mental Health an independent, not for profit think-tank carried out research called?“Student Space” which found?that students have faced major challenges to their mental health since March 2020, with more anxiety and lower life satisfaction than the general population. However?some groups of students experienced greater challenges, including students from racialised communities, students with disabilities, international students, and students from disadvantaged backgrounds. It must be remembered though that the challenges to mental health is not all due to the pandemic,?student mental health and the challenges facing?university counselling?services, some of which are?under-funded have been around for many years, the pandemic has only?heightened the need.

This course aims to explore student mental health in a way which is authentic?and?practical and?we wanted to do a number of things;?explore the challenges that students face, look at the signs and indications that may show that?people are struggling, and offer some tips, tools and techniques. But we wanted to ensure that the experiences of students were honestly portrayed, so it was important to talk to students and to hear about the challenges they face.?In the course, there are a number of?case-studies and these are based on real situations and conversations with?students in which they shared their personal circumstances.?In this online?course we also?wanted to do something different, we wanted users to spend time away from the computer screen (after all?spending too much time on line can affect mental health).?So throughout the course there are invitations to move away from the screen, to listen to short engaging audio pieces that encourages people to go for a walk, read a favourite book or just to be mindful.?We haven’t covered everything, and there may be things that you feel are missing, however we?wanted to make users think about mental health and offer something that was?authentic, accessible and helpful.

So beyond University Mental Health Day, lets speak up about student mental health more, and keep the conversation going! To find out more information about this course, please head over to our website marshallelearning.com