Mental health awareness days are a chance to remind ourselves that the mental health of students and staff within a higher education community should be a year-round priority and not just something we think about and promote once a year.

We know that nationally there has been a rise in people seeking support for their mental health, and we have seen this ourselves in the number of our students that are accessing resources from the Student Mental Health & Wellbeing Service at Leeds Trinity University.

This year we are focusing on how to ensure students at Leeds Trinity have access to a wider range of support for their wellbeing; can better reflect on their needs and ask for support when needed; and that we are able to involve the right people at the right time to reduce emotional labour for our students when they are in a place of need.

We felt that the best way to involve all staff and students in this process would be to work through the Student Minds’ University Mental Health Charter – becoming one of the first universities in the UK to do so. This is a process by which we explore a whole University approach to wellbeing – looking at how everyone in our community has a role to play in supporting our collective and individual wellbeing. It means looking at how the University handles student wellbeing – from the point of application to the point of leaving – taking into consideration academic pressures; our physical environments; the wellbeing of our staff and the specific wellbeing services we offer.

We are in the process of introducing several new wellbeing-focused initiatives to the University and are keen to receive feedback as co-creation with students is vital to ensure that our work is right. We have started looking at areas of high stress to ensure the best additional support. This includes:

• Creation of in-person and remote lunchtime sessions looking at worries around placements
• Increasing the staffing in our Student Mental Health & Wellbeing team so we can offer more assessments, more therapy and more specific support for students who may need additional liaison with NHS services
• Increasing the number of Resident Mentors for the 2022/23 Academic Year onwards, as well as making these roles formally employed by Leeds Trinity to provide more support, including additional wellbeing-focused training
• Staff across Student Support, the Students’ Union, The Learning Hub and Trinity Sport to be accredited as trainers for peer-led wellbeing support
• Increase in hours of Student Support so that hours are now extended to cover 10.00pm – 5.00am, seven days a week

These changes are all in addition to our current services and not instead of them – we are still offering assessments within the Student Mental Health & Wellbeing service; a range of talking therapies; liaison with NHS teams; a range of self-help information; our broader Student Support team; money advice; and disability advice. Leeds Trinity University is also subscribed to Togetherall – an online wellbeing platform that students can access for further mental health support.

These are just some of the immediate areas of wellbeing support we are looking to improve at Leeds Trinity University, in addition to our ongoing activity. This is not a one day, month, or even year-long project, but an ongoing reflective process. We want all students and staff to feel the benefit of the work we are doing and hope that it continues to grow.