Today is World Mental Health Day: a day intended both to raise awareness of mental health problems and to take action to ensure everyone can get the right support. This can sometimes just be an opportunity for “wellbeing washing,” when organizations are more concerned with appearing to care about wellbeing than actually doing anything about it. In the School of Humanities at Westminster, we’re trying our best to make sure we not only talk the talk about mental health issues but that we take action to support our students.
We’ve added a commitment to our Staff-Student Assessment contract that we will support our students who are experiencing poor mental health or wellbeing, that we will listen and respond with empathy and ensure you know how to get appropriate help from your Personal tutor, a Wellbeing Advisor or Student Services, and that if we have concerns about any of our students’ safety or wellbeing, we will notify the appropriate colleagues who can help. To help us do this, your personal tutors and lecturers are undertaking additional training, including as Mental Health First Aiders, so we can help you get the right support when needed. And in the last National Student Survey, Humanities scored above the benchmark (the weighted national average) for how well information about the university’s mental wellbeing support services were communicated to our students.
If you are experiencing poor mental health or wellbeing, we want you to feel confident that you can always reach out for help and support. To support World Mental Health Day the university has published a list of support and resources at Westminster: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/current-students/news/world-mental-health-day-2023. Your Personal tutor can put you in contact with one of our Wellbeing Advisors, who will be able to offer advice and help you get practical support, including from our trained Counsellors or our Disability Learning Support team for longer term mental or physical health issues. If your studies are being affected, your Personal tutor can explain how to claim for mitigating circumstances for a short extension or longer deferral on assessment deadlines, or, if you are struggling to manage, how to defer modules or interrupt your studies completely until your situation is better.
We also know that loneliness can be a significant issue affecting student wellbeing at university and we are running a number of groups to help bring students & staff together. If you would like to connect with international students and staff, and be a part of Westminster’s global community, join our World in Westminster Café in Fyvie Hall (Regent Street) from 6pm to 8pm on Wednesday 11th October, where the world comes together over a cup of culture and conversation (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wiw-cafe-regent-campus-tickets-727548185207).
You can also join likeminded students and staff in our weekly Well Lit shared reading group in the Old Gymnasium (downstairs in Regent Street, next to the Hideaway) from 2pm to 3pm every Thursday (next session on Thursday 12th October). We know that reading literature together can have a positive impact on our wellbeing, improve our self-awareness, and make us feel more connected & transform the way we interact with others, so why not spend an hour out of your week connecting with our Humanities community and loving the power of literature? Contact Matt Charles for more info: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/charles-matthew
