Student Mental Health And Wellbeing In Higher Education

Good mental health is essential for students to manage the challenges that university life presents. This book offers pragmatic guidance to support academic and student services staff in engaging with this critical issue, both in terms of being proactive within their role to promote a positive approach to wellbeing, and understanding how to care appropriately for students who may not be flourishing in the university environment. Key topics include: · The pressure points and transitions of student life · The crucial role of departmental and academic staff · How to make mental health policies work · The legal obligations and limits of student support · Creating the conditions for confident support

Student wellbeing is foundational to academic success. One recent survey of postsecondary educators found that nearly 80 percent believed emotional wellbeing is a "very" or "extremely" important factor in student success. Studies have found the dropout rates for students with a diagnosed mental health problem range from 43 percent to as high as 86 percent. While dealing with stress is a normal part of life, for some students, stress can adversely affect their physical, emotional, and psychological health, particularly given that adolescence and early adulthood are when most mental illnesses are first manifested. In addition to students who may develop mental health challenges during their time in postsecondary education, many students arrive on campus with a mental health problem or having experienced significant trauma in their lives, which can also negatively affect physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing. The nation's institutions of higher education are seeing increasing levels of mental illness, substance use and other forms of emotional distress among their students. Some of the problematic trends have been ongoing for decades. Some have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic consequences. Some are the result of long-festering systemic racism in almost every sphere of American life that are becoming more widely acknowledged throughout society and must, at last, be addressed. Mental Health, Substance Use, and Wellbeing in Higher Education lays out a variety of possible strategies and approaches to meet increasing demand for mental health and substance use services, based on the available evidence on the nature of the issues and what works in various situations. The recommendations of this report will support the delivery of mental health and wellness services by the nation's institutions of higher education.

This book offers pragmatic guidance to support academic and student services staff in both being proactive within their role to promote a positive approach to wellbeing, and understanding how to care appropriately for students who may not be flourishing in the university environment.

The chapter authors address life transitions and the university student experience, as well as the challenges of caring for university students with mental health issues. The book has positive strategies, including ways to foster mental health for distinct university student populations.

Student mental health is a key consideration in higher education at the moment with recent reports identifying a major gap in provision by universities and how ill-equipped academics feel to support students. This book addresses these concerns, providing comprehensive guidance and workable evidence-informed strategies and interventions to help those working with students to support them effectively. It is suitable for lecturers, personal tutors, student counsellors, course leaders, heads of department and administration staff with responsibility for student support.

Mental Health among Higher Education Faculty, Administrators, and Graduate Studentsaddresses how many academics who experience mental distress or mental illness are afraid to speak out because of cultural stigma and fears of career repercussions. Many academics’ reluctance to publicly disclose their struggles complicates attempts to understand their experiences through research or popular media, or to develop targeted mental health resources and institutional policies. This volume builds on the existing studies in this greatly under-researched area of mental health among faculty, administrators, and graduate students in higher education. The chapters’ research findings will help institutions communicate about mental health in culturally-competent and person-centered ways; create work environments conducive to mental well-being; and support their academic employees who have mental health challenges. This book argues that discussions of health and wellness, equity, workload expectations and productivity, and campus diversity must also cover chronic illness and disability, which include mental health and mental illness.

Wellbeing is foundational to citizens’ individual and collective ability to acknowledge, address, and alleviate ongoing struggles, shared risks, and the unprecedented challenges of our time. A holistic focus on wellness across campus communities is timely and important, given that national and global justice movements are calling upon post-secondary institutions to address the ways in which education systems have been reproducing dominant narratives, reinforcing systemic discrimination, and retaliating against education leaders who work to disrupt structural inequalities. Leadership Wellness and Mental Health Concerns in Higher Education offers diverse perspectives about whether and how campus leaders around the world are sustaining and advancing health and wellness in unprecedented times and amplifies diverse voices in the exploration of how to advance individual and collective wellbeing in higher education. Covering a wide range of topics such as stress management and burnout, this reference work is ideal for academicians, scholars, researchers, administrators, practitioners, instructors, and students.

Academic staff and students within higher education settings are confronted by a learning environment that is academically stimulating, informative, career-focused and socially rich, which can be intensely competitive and highly charged. Within this learning environment, academic staff and students are often at risk of compromising their wellbeing in their pursuit of academic excellence. This book provides an examination of the key areas that are important to the sustenance of wellbeing within higher education settings, with a view to promoting healthy learning environments. The chapter authors are predominantly working in the Asia-Pacific rim, but the book also includes more universal perspectives. The synthesis of the issues covered in the book is crucial to the understanding of higher education as not only an environment for gaining knowledge and skills relevant for success in academic and career domains, but also as an environment for developing socially adept and authentic communication skills. The ideas presented in this book will further assist academic staff and students to consider ways to more fully participate in their learning environment so that they can optimize their valuable contributions to the professional communities they serve.