How the Education for Mental Health Toolkit can support student wellbeing

Developed as a partnership between Student Minds, Advance HE, the University of Derby, King’s College London and Aston University, and funded by the Office for Students, the toolkit is grounded in research literature and has been created through research and co-creation with students, academics, quality staff, learning and teaching staff and Principal Fellows.

At the recent launch event, attendees heard from two students about their experiences as undergraduates, as well as from Gareth Hughes, who led the research for the project, Rosie Tressler OBE, CE of Student Minds and Prof. Sally Bradley from Advance HE.

Sue Smith, Deputy Director of the Centre for Learning and Teaching and Hannah Taylor, Senior Wellbeing Practitioner (School-Based), are both members of the University Mental Health Charter Leeds Beckett project group and attended the launch of the toolkit in February 2022. 

Why did you attend the event?

Sue Smith: One of my key work areas is to think about pan-University course activity and how we can, as teachers, improve how we teach and think of new strategies and activities to innovate the curricula to benefit as many students as possible. I wanted to, and did, pick up some great new ideas and approaches. The new Advance HE Toolkit for Mental Health is full of good, evidence-based ideas. It also made me think about assessment and how we can offer more choice and be careful with assessment timing and load.

Hannah Taylor: The School-Based Wellbeing Practitioner team is a recent addition to the Student Wellbeing team and the principle behind the role is rooted in early intervention and prevention. The team has a strong focus on co-creation within schools and with students to work out how to begin to embed wellbeing into the curriculum. Part of our role is to help facilitate culture change to promote healthy wellbeing behaviours within the institution. I was interested in the evidence behind what works and how this has been done in other places and what ideas I could adopt in order that we might improve our initial work. I also wanted to hear from students about what worked well for them and how they can be involved.

What did you take from the event in terms of how to better embed wellbeing in the curriculum?

SS: It made me think how important inclusive academic practice is in teaching and assessment. The more inclusive we can be, the less students with mental health problems will feel marginalised and alienated from their course studies. "Belonging" is very important for students, especially new ones, at university. It has been shown to help them learn better and be happier. Inclusive academic practice has been a key workstream at Leeds Beckett for a few years and CLT has produced a lot of guidance on it and much progress has been made, but this event crystallised my thinking about how we support mental health and wellbeing for all students, not just those students who may have disclosed a specific issue. By promoting wellbeing in all students' learning, students can understand the issues more, learn more deeply and support each other as peers more effectively. If the content and discussion is sat in the course itself and integral to that, then there is no escape - it's core and it's not extracurricular or regarded as an "add on." 

HT: I took from the launch the approach of ‘assessment for’ vs ‘assessment of’ learning and the importance of being involved, as student services, in curriculum design to be of the most use at crunch points. The evidence for embedding healthy behaviours is clearly in having sessions timetabled and planned within learning activities to be the most meaningful for students. This way 100% of students can be supported and not just students who present with wellbeing issues, often at the point where things have become unmanageable and where they are already worried about their academic achievement and their mental health.

What are the benefits to the university community for embedding wellbeing into the curriculum?

SS: Apart from the above. I think it is good for staff colleagues too. By teaching about it and regularly embedding new ideas into the curriculum and their module sessions, it emphasises its importance. Colleagues can be supported to understand their own wellbeing needs too so knowing a bit more about it offers them more awareness and information. The Advance HE toolkit itself might help to catalyse some research on mental health activity in the curriculum across the university or in the specific Schools, which is much needed in the sector.

HT: A shared sense of wanting what is best for us all as people. Mental health and wellbeing is everyone’s business, it is part of the human condition, by talking about things which affect us regularly within everyday contexts and learning environments prevents the stigma and shame which exacerbate less healthy behaviours. The whole community would benefit from showing belief in the transactional relationship between student wellbeing and student learning. Importantly this would show that giving proper consideration to wellbeing within the curriculum would not lower academic standards, it would do quite the opposite.

If you would like to understand more about the toolkit and how it could benefit you and your work, please access the Education for Mental Health Toolkit on the Advance HE website.