Thursday (4th March) is University Mental Health Day! Now more than ever we need to look after our mental health and within our fabulous University we have lots of services that can be accessed to help support our students.
BUCS Mental Health Webinar
On Tuesday, BUCS held their Mental Health Webinar with a very inspiring panel discussing their experiences of mental health and stressing the importance of talking to the people around you and its okay to not be okay. We were very fortunate of our former SU Vice-President Alistair McDermid to be sat on the panel where he discussed his story and challenges. We are all very proud of Alistair and for him opening up.
What does the University offer for Mental Health?
Within the Student Wellbeing Service our students have access to councillors, a full range of wellbeing activities and 24/7 support through outsourced online services. Several of our front facing staff members on campus have received the mental health first aid training and we are looking forward to offering this to more staff in the future.
Within Oriam we offer two referral programmes in partnership with the Student Wellbeing Service to help support students who are struggling with their mental health. These are specifically designed to give students support to become more active as a method of helping them to manage their mental health. We have had over 100 students take part in these programmes so far and we look forward to seeing what else we can do in this area to support the University.
Some of the best advice we can give to our members around mental health support is try and move every day, in whatever way that makes you happy. Whether that is joining one of our online classes, heading for a jog around the trail, having a kitchen disco, strapping on a pair of roller blades or setting off for a gentle walk around the duck pond. As long as it makes you happy and if it can be outdoors and slightly increase your heart rate then even better!
Please remember it is ok to not to be ok so please check in with your friends and family and ask them, “are you ok?”
For more information about Uni Mental Health Day https://www.unimentalhealthday.co.uk/#
For mor info about our Student Wellbeing Service https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/students/health-wellbeing/edinburgh/wellbeing-services.htm