Student mental health on campus: An emerging crisis?

When you look at the headlines, you would know that student mental health is in crisis. In the last few months alone, the press speaks of negative effects on mental health of perfectionism, high academic demands, financial worries. What makes things harder for students, is that the struggle of entering a new life phase and juggling demands from various life corners still is a taboo. Apparently, one in four students have reported problems with their mental health, and most are not comfortable talking about it, for fear of not being believed or fear of consequences.

As postgrad students, we identify and sympathise with students who struggle with mental health issues and the stigma attached to it. So when we had the chance to apply for funding so we could do something about it, we wanted to go for it and see how we could make a difference. So in this second meeting of our student-led CADP research group, we discussed our research proposal and funding opportunities. Our first question we would want to see answered, was, do students know their way around, can they find the services that they are offered? Our second question was, how is the stigma surrounding mental health experienced in students. An additional plan was, to interview students and make a documentary of that, to raise awareness of student mental health. So while we were in the process of waiting for feedback on a first draft from our School panel, we took a look around the internet. We were delighted to find some very good options. So the next step would be to see how we would be able to manage a large project like this, as we are all busy students ourselves and need to take care of our own mental health too, obviously. At the end of our meeting, we discussed some ways forward but at the same time still in the process of finding out how we could shape a project like this.