You said, we did!
Following the launch of our Student Mental Health Agreement Plan at the begnning of February this year, we've now successfully met all areas of the agreement plan through our events and activities!
Most of the criteria, aims and objectives for this plan linked directly into the Healthy Body Healthy Mind Award we have also been working on this year. We're happy to annouce that we've now successfully submitted our final report for that award. Now it's time to wait until the awards ceremony to find out how many stars we've achieved! So keep your eyes peeled for that being mentioned next month on our social media pages. Please find a copy of the final Student Mental Health Agreement Plan document below that was launched in February this year!
You can see below how we have met all of the objectives set in the agreement plan:
1. To set up a student led health steering group where we will identify key areas they think are of importance and work closely with the students to implement a weekly group on 3 campuses by February 2019
In November 2018, we launched peer support group meetings for students to come along to during lunch times, where they could have lunch while meeting other students. The aim of this was for students to take the time out from there studies to discuss how college life was going for them. Unfortunately these groups weren't popular with students. This led to a decision to re-brand this group to the Crafternoon Club. This has involved regular lunchtime meet ups every week allowing students to take part in arts and craft activities to relax during their lunch break. This group is set up on 3 of our campuses and has students attending regularly.
2. To establish an online wellbeing hub for students, that focuses on their wellbeing and physcial activities outlook by March 2019
We conducted research before we created our template for the wellbeing hub. Alongside this we took the student videos from the "It's Not Just You" campaign and put them onto a section on the hub. Students that have been attending the Crafternoon Club provided us with constructive feedback on what they liked and didn't like on the draft template of the hub. Going forward now that the wellbeing hub has been launched, it will continue to be updated with up to date information on health and wellbeing.
3. To launch weekly yoga sessions for a group of our mature students by January 2019
From the welcome week survey we conducted with students in August, we analysed what our student demographics were. This helped us establish which group of students we could work with, and who we could promote the yoga sessions to. We promoted these sessions to our mature students, as we received feedback from them in a Class Rep conference that there weren't many activities running for them at the college. The success of the yoga group meant we were able to launch two regular groups at our Sighthill and Granton campuses.
4. To improve our links with external mental health organisations, so our students have more support in place for their wellbeing by December 2018
We successfully partnered up with Nightline and establised a working agreement plan, in order to promote the service Nightline offers to all students. Nightline also provided our students with wellbeing packs in December and March.
5. To take part in the Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, tackling the stigma of student mental health and physcial activities by May 2019
We attended the Think Positive launch event for this award to find out what the new set of criteria are for this year. Through both the HBHM award programme and the SMHA award, we successfully set up a student wellbeing steering group with members of staff from within the college. We reviewed last year's submission and improved our aims and objectives for this years submission. We have successfully met the deadline for submission for this award. You'll all find out how many stars we recieve for this year next month at the awards ceremony.
6. To continue the work we've completed on the student mental health agreement plan and introduce new working areas by April 2019
Similar to the HBHM programme we reviewed our submission and feedback from last year's award. As mentioned in the launch news article of this agreement plan document, last year we achieved four objectives and this year we have increased this to eight objectives. We are currently on track for meeting the deadline for submission of this award for June. The final agreement plan was launched on our website in February and it can be viewed from the link at the top of this news article.
7. To provide wellbeing packs and activities for students in halls of residence by January 2019
We managed to create a partnership with a local church within the area of our Milton Road campus, who have been providing our halls students with a free hot meal on the last Saturday of the month. During these monthly free meal sessions, we've been able to have focused conversations directly with the halls students about what they like about college life and what could be improved. We also provided the halls students with wellbeing packs in December 2018. Some of the items within these packs included, pasta sachets, hot choclate mix bags, stress balls, pens, sweets and information leaflets for support on their overall mental health and wellbeing.
8. To establish early intervention mechanisms for all students by November 2019
Since the new wellbeing team launched there service for students in August 2018, we've worked in partnership with them on a number of events that address national health and wellbeing days. The wellbeing team have also been ensuring they speak to students about their mental health and wellbeing, which has meant they have been able to direct students to their own wellbeing services: student services within the college, Nightline, and other external organisations. This has helped with early intervention of supporting students with their mental health and wellbeing.
If you have any questions, please contact Beth Anderson (Vice President Welfare Officer) on vpwelfare@edinburghcollege.ac.uk