Supported By:

HUCS Heads of University Counselling Services

We are kindly supported by Comic Relief, the Welton Foundation, UnLtd, The Matthew Elvidge Trust, The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, The James Wentworth-Stanley Memorial Trust and Student Hubs.

Student Minds is a charitable company registered with Companies house, number 7493445 and the Charities Commission, number 1142783

What is University Mental Health Day?

University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day is an annual event to focus efforts

aimed at promoting the mental health of people who live and work in Higher

Education settings. The initiative was started by UMHAN (University Mental Health

Advisers Network) in 2012 and is supported by members of the Alliance for Student-

Led Wellbeing.

Why should I get involved?

University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day is an excellent opportunity to bring all of

the stakeholders in student mental health together on campuses across the UK. By

being part of a national initiative, your own initiatives will be far reaching. The day is

also a great chance to get more students involved with student-led initiatives and to

build up a larger base of students and staff to support future health promotion and

campaigns.

Who should I work with?

This day is all about collaboration, between mental health advisers, student

volunteers, university staff and Students’ Union officers. University staff are

encouraged to invite their Student Minds group, psychology society, yoga society or

Nightline to run joint events - the bigger the better! Building all of these relationships

now will also help you to develop future wellbeing projects.

How can I get involved?

We think it’s time to talk about student mental health. We’ve included some

suggestions in this information pack for how you can get involved, from running a

social contact event or mindapples tree, to blogging and joining the national

conversation on Twitter…

We are kindly supported by Comic Relief, the Welton Foundation, UnLtd, The Matthew Elvidge Trust, The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, The James Wentworth-Stanley Memorial Trust and Student Hubs.

Student Minds is a charitable company registered with Companies house, number 7493445 and the Charities Commission, number 1142783

Time to Talk about Student Mental Health

We’ll be using social media to get students talking about mental health. By sharing

what you’re doing you’ll be part of a national conversation on mental health at

university.

Tweet @StudentMindsOrg and @UHMANUK

Use the hashtag: #unimentalhealthday

Tag ‘Student Minds’ in Facebook posts

Upload your photos to Facebook and Twitter and tag us, or email your images to

rosanna@studentminds.org.uk

What do we want to know?

Tell us about your plans and how they are going as the day unfolds.

Let us know ‘What do you do for your Mental Health?’ and spread this question

through your social media channels.

Anything you want to say about student mental health and wellbeing – get your

voice heard!

Share photos of your activities and photos of things that are good for your

wellbeing, the more creative the better!

We’ll be sharing information about student mental health, as well as your news,

photos and blogs - so get sharing!

Blogging

We want to collect blogs from all members of the university community. In the weeks

leading up to UMHD, and on the day itself, ask if any students or staff want to

contribute a short blog either about their personal experience or what they like to do

for their wellbeing. Send any blogs to Student Minds for promotion through our

national blog.

More information about blogging and guidelines on appropriate content can he found

here: www.studentminds.org.uk/join-our-blogging-team.

We are kindly supported by Comic Relief, the Welton Foundation, UnLtd, The Matthew Elvidge Trust, The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, The James Wentworth-Stanley Memorial Trust and Student Hubs.

Student Minds is a charitable company registered with Companies house, number 7493445 and the Charities Commission, number 1142783

Event Ideas

We want University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day to be a national day of action

and a buzz of activity. All of these events have been tried and tested and most can

run on a small budget and tight timescale.

University social contact events

Social contact is where someone with experience of mental health problems shares

this with someone without. This is regarded as one of the most promising ways of

reducing stigma & discrimination. 1 Additionally, hearing from fellow students has

been recorded as a key preference from students themselves for combatting stigma.2

The Mind Your Head Campaign at the University of Oxford regularly runs successful

social contact events. The founder and former co-ordinator of the campaign, Seb

Baird, has helped bring together some guidance for other universities and student

groups looking to run similar events on their campuses. General advice on running

events can be found towards the end of this pack.

Preparing to run a social contact event

Engaging the right stakeholders: At Oxford, the Mind Your Head team usually run

social contact events in common rooms in conjunction with JCR (Junior Common

Room / Hall reps) and work closely with the welfare rep to arrange the appropriate

room and get in touch with any students in that college that may want to speak.

Identify which student groups would drive up attendance at your institution and

engage members of those groups.

Selecting a speaker: Student speakers are the key to social contact events, but

finding students to speak can be challenging. There may be some students involved

with relevant student groups that will be particularly interested in speaking, but utilise

various communication channels to increase opportunities to get involved. In addition

to students, you may wish to invite mental health professionals to provide a different

perspective. Some potential professional speakers you might like to think about

inviting include: counsellors, GPs, psychologists (academic or otherwise), charity

representatives and university mental health advisors.

1 Pettigrew TF, Tropp LR. A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. J Pers Soc Psychol 2006; 90:751–83. 2 Think Positive, Breaking the Silence Report, (October, 2011)

We are kindly supported by Comic Relief, the Welton Foundation, UnLtd, The Matthew Elvidge Trust, The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, The James Wentworth-Stanley Memorial Trust and Student Hubs.

Student Minds is a charitable company registered with Companies house, number 7493445 and the Charities Commission, number 1142783

Briefing the speaker(s): When you are in contact with individuals interested in

speaking, it’s important to let them know what’s expected of them;

How long they are supposed to talk for and the event format (detailed below)

Thinking about how they might respond to questions that may be, albeit

accidentally, rude or ignorant.

What they might want to talk about; Mind Your Head asks students to talk about

their experience of ill health, and share some of the things they have learned

from it. Mind Your Head speakers often write a brief narrative of their experience

before their first event, because it helps them to organise their thoughts.

We also suggest that the speakers are shown Student Minds’ guidance below on

avoiding triggering content. This involves:

Focusing on thoughts, feelings and experiences rather than behaviours and their

physical effects

Avoiding including data such as mortality rates; we prefer to alert people to the

issue by talking about the impact eating disorders have on everyday life

Not talking in detail about self-harm or suicide

Not including numbers such as those related to weights or BMI of people with

eating disorders

No information about specific food stuffs eaten by people with eating disorders or

detailed descriptions of eating disorder behaviours

No emaciated or underweight photographs

Avoiding ‘glamourising’ eating disorders or treatment

The event format

Mind Your Head’s format for a social contact event:

1. Introduction: The organiser will briefly talk about Mind Your Head, including

the aims of the campaign, some generalities about why mental health is

important and will introduce the person/people who are there to talk about

their experience.

2. Speakers: The person/people sharing their experience talk for about 10/15

minutes.

3. Questions: The floor is opened for questions and discussion. People can be

shy, so perhaps think of some questions you can use to get the discussion

flowing.

4. Wrapping Up: Thank yous and reminders on how other students can get

involved / access support in the future.

Top Tip: “At larger events, we sometimes ask graduate medicine or psychology

students to do a short presentations on the science of mental health difficulties.”

We are kindly supported by Comic Relief, the Welton Foundation, UnLtd, The Matthew Elvidge Trust, The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, The James Wentworth-Stanley Memorial Trust and Student Hubs.

Student Minds is a charitable company registered with Companies house, number 7493445 and the Charities Commission, number 1142783

Measuring the impact: As well as keeping a record of numbers, it is worthwhile

evaluating the success of the event. Student Minds groups can do this via our

feedback google form. You might ask attendees to provide feedback after the event

by producing short open answer postcards.

Social Contact Event Checklist Recruit your Speakers (usually two or three)

Brief the speakers on their expectations and ensure they are

comfortable with the format

Ensure a suitable room is booked

Ask the university and Students’ Union and student groups to help

promote the event. (Try and press the importance to them of welfare

reps getting their own friends and networks to come along)

Do you have any miscellaneous things you might need? e.g.

PowerPoint, food/drink

Do you have any additional materials you can hand out?

Is there a way for people who are attending the event to get involved

with the campaign / student group (sign-up sheet)

Further Event Ideas

Wellbeing Stall: Last year many institutions hosted a stand in their Students’ Union

or another prominent location where students and staff had the opportunity to collect

free materials and information about mental wellbeing. This also acted as a great

opportunity to talk to Mental Health Advisers, student counsellors, Disability Office

staff and other relevant colleagues about mental wellbeing generally or the services

provided. We know that many students will feel more comfortable speaking to other

students, so having a friendly student face on the stall makes a big difference.

Wellbeing MOT/ check-ups: In addition to hosting a stand, there are a number of

universities that intend to run mental health and wellbeing MOTs, where students

and staff can go to check out what “tune-ups” could be made to their own wellbeing –

for example, ensuring that everyone is doing something to get their “five a day for

mental wellbeing”.

Mindapples Tree: Over the past couple of years several institutions hosted a

Mindapples tree to encourage people to think about five things that they regularly do

to look after their mental wellbeing. It’s a good ice-breaker to start a conversation

about mental health. You might see if your university can purchase a tree or pack

from Mindapples, which your volunteers could put into action. See:

http://mindapples.org/.

We are kindly supported by Comic Relief, the Welton Foundation, UnLtd, The Matthew Elvidge Trust, The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, The James Wentworth-Stanley Memorial Trust and Student Hubs.

Student Minds is a charitable company registered with Companies house, number 7493445 and the Charities Commission, number 1142783

Collecting ‘Mindapples’ at Loughborough University last year

Laughter/ Sleep/ Mindfulness Workshops: Several groups have hosted

professional workshops on mindfulness, laughter or sleep. They are not only fun, but

brilliant for combatting stress too!

Free Massage: Last year Dundee University organised free massages. This is

always popular with students! If you have a massage society they might be

interested in providing free massages to help students relax.

Student Minds Promotion/ Launch Day: Just being a presence on campus and

getting your committee/ volunteers to encourage students to sign up is a great way to

set your group up for further activity throughout the year. Unions without a mental

health society could also use the day as a springboard to sign up volunteers and

launch a new group to ensure you leave a lasting legacy for mental health promotion

and campaigning at your university.

Contact us for more information: campaigns@studentminds.org.uk.

Pledging: Getting students to think about what they could change is also a great

way to measure how many people you reach throughout the day. Students can

pledge to join your campaign, to learn more about mental health, or to do more for

their own. It’s easy to do – just print out some simple ‘I pledge to…’ cards and get

students to pin them onto an information board.

We are kindly supported by Comic Relief, the Welton Foundation, UnLtd, The Matthew Elvidge Trust, The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, The James Wentworth-Stanley Memorial Trust and Student Hubs.

Student Minds is a charitable company registered with Companies house, number 7493445 and the Charities Commission, number 1142783

Events Basics: Things to remember!

Plan carefully:

Book the location far in advance. Is it accessible? Risk assessed?

Try not to clash with other events.

Know your Purpose and Audience:

Test out the purpose on other people.

Think through the plan as an attendee: what do they want out of this event?

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work!

Hold effective planning meetings with a clear agenda and tangible outcomes.

Have defined responsibilities & find out who’s good at what on your team.

Stick to your Budget:

Research funding possibilities – SU’s can sometimes find funders for high profile

events.

Find Partners:

Your SU officers, University staff, commercial organisations – for guidance and

freebies!

Advertise Early and Widely:

Your immediate channels: SU mailing list, website, social media, boards etc.

University pages and specific places e.g. Student Support, International Office

Contact relevant societies (e.g. Yoga, Nightline)

Pledging at Warwick University

We are kindly supported by Comic Relief, the Welton Foundation, UnLtd, The Matthew Elvidge Trust, The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, The James Wentworth-Stanley Memorial Trust and Student Hubs.

Student Minds is a charitable company registered with Companies house, number 7493445 and the Charities Commission, number 1142783

Signposting to Support

For the team involved in delivering wellbeing events – staff or students, it’s important

to consider how you would signpost someone to support. If someone opens up to

you about a problem they are struggling with, it may have taken them considerable

effort to open up and come and talk to you. You have a responsibility to ensure that

this effort is well directed and that you sign post the student on to people who can

offer appropriate support.

Student Services staff or your university’s website should detail local support

and how this can be accessed

You can also signpost to: www.studentminds.org.uk/furthersupport

You might also signpost using printed resources. A range can be ordered

from the CWMT website: http://www.cwmt.org.uk/what-we-do-3/resources/

Reviewing your Activities

The only way you can tell if you are making a difference is by reviewing your events

and collecting evidence. For any activities you run, collect feedback, numerical

evidence, photographs and testimonials from students. Set yourself targets as a way

of measuring success. If you don’t meet the targets it doesn’t mean you’ve failed - it

is an opportunity to think about how you can make improvements next time. Student

Minds groups should review events via the Student Minds Google form and

universities can send feedback through UMHAN’s website.

Other Resources

Information about UMHAN and University Mental Health Day:

http://www.umhan.com/uni-mental-health-day.html

Student Minds website:

http://www.studentminds.org.uk/uni-mental-health-day.html

Nightline:

http://www.nightline.ac.uk/

Students Against Depression website:

http://www.studentsagainstdepression.org/

Mindapples:

http://www.mindapples.org

Action for Happiness' Ten Keys To Happier Living:

http://www.actionforhappiness.org/10-keys-to-happier-living