Mental Health

mental health word cloudIn May 2020, Universities UK updated their guide ‘Stepchange: Mentally Healthy Universities’ offering advice about institutional policies and procedures with a self-assessment tool.  SCIPS offers strategies for coping with mental health difficulties in teaching and learning situations

Depressiong, pain and fatigue can result from a wide range of medical conditions that may come under the heading of hidden disabilities.   The University of Hull has a video on YouTube about Time Management, one of the main issues that may arise when a student feels stressed.

Stress may be part of a wider mental health issue or a feeling that occurs at particular times during the academic year. Imperial College have an article about stress with management tips but it may be important to think about requests for:

  • Extra support / mentoring
  • Study skill guidance
  • Coursework extensions
  • Special circumstances
  • Interruption of study

The University of St Andrews has a list of the issues students have mentioned cause stress that confirms the need for some of the considerations mentioned above.

“The main thing I learned then and have had brought home to me since by some minor re-occurrences … is that I must accept that unless I am sensible and do not overdo things the virus could re-occur. Accepting this involved altering my ideas on time, in that it was no longer necessarily time-saving to try and complete a lot of things in a short space of time. Trying to do so could mean that I would end up in bed for the following few days, thereby taking twice as long as I otherwise might have done.” (Dundee Counselling Service extract from a case history)