Student Mental Health Conference

09:00                    

Registration, refreshments and exhibition 

10:00                      

Opening remarks from chair              

10:10                                

Morning keynote:

The challenges facing students and how universities can respond effectively

• Exploring trends in student wellbeing: what challenges are they facing today
• Understanding the broad scope of what student wellbeing encompasses
• Whole institution approaches to prioritising the issue of mental health and sustained systematic improvement

10:35                              

Exploring the key transitions in university life and supporting students through

• Engaging the most appropriate resources to support students transition into university life – making the jump from further education both academically and socially
• Working with students to help them identify their mental health, empowering them to understand how they cope in new or challenging situations
• How can universities build and implement a policy that focuses on the wider challenges of transitioning into and out of university – where does responsibility begin and end for the student population at university?

11:00                              

Joint question and discussion session

11:10                                                                        

Refreshments and networking

11:30                              

Equipping academic staff to respond to the mental wellbeing of their students

Susan Bridgeford, Director of Student Support Services, University of Sheffield (CONFIRMED)

• To what extent are academics able to effectively respond and deliver good pastoral care for their students
• Developing those support channels which enable staff to feed students through to the correct pathway of help
• Initiatives that have brought in to enable effective communication and referrals, what has been working well?

11:55          

Creating and developing a student mental health strategy

Suzanne Carrie, Head of Student Inclusivity and  Simon Phillips, Head of Student Support and Wellbeing, UWE Bristol (CONFIRMED)

• Setting out strategy aims and what it wants to achieve: understanding the issues facing your students
• Exploring the structuring and accessibility of services: how can the university bring services in house and monitor the mental health journey of their students
• Collaborating with NHS services to deliver joined-up care for students: how do universities develop cross-sector collaboration and ensure quality of care?

12:20          

Joint question and discussion session

12:30          

Lunch and networking 

13:30          

Special keynote:

Building student resilience: enabling student success through positive approaches

• Identifying transition points where students struggle to adapt and understanding the broader social and academic impact
• Creating a “resilience toolkit” for students who need a bit of extra support to help them feel more academically confident
• Collaborating with other pastoral departments to enable strong support systems that not only prevent unnecessary drop outs but allow students to flourish

13:55        

Better understanding the specific mental health needs of international students

Josephine NwaAmaka Bardi, Founder of RAMHHE (Raising Awareness of Mental Health in Higher Education) (CONFIRMED)

• Identifying mental health pressure points that can impact the mental health of the international student communities in higher education
• Working with accommodation providers to establish services and programmes specific to the needs of international students
• Reflecting upon values and beliefs about the common and distinctive features of the international student experience which relate to mental illness and health

14:20        

Joint question and discussion session

14:30        

Refreshments and networking

14:50        

Case study: Implementing a vision and strategic framework with funding

• Hearing more details of the pilot programme designed to implement a new approach to mental wellbeing frameworks
• Securing  funding to use for service redesign and implementation
• Developing a suite of improvement tools and creating a validated mental health and wellbeing audit
• Disseminating these tools across the sector and sharing best practice with other HE institutions

15:15        

Samaritans on crisis management — Coping with student suicide

• Improving the understanding of suicide in higher education
• Looking at the postvention processes to support communities and prevent further adverse behaviours for those affected
• Supporting universities to formulate response plans: how the Samaritans “Step by Step” guidance has developed and can be applied to a number of HEIs

15:40        

Joint questions and discussion

15:50          

Closing remarks from chair

16:00          

Conference close

*Programme subject to change without notice