University Mental Health Day

#unimentalhealthday

The University of Newcastle joins universities across Australia and New Zealand on the first Tuesday in May each year.

The aim of University Mental Health Day is to bring together our diverse university communities: To inspire conversations, campaign, take action and create change so that together we can make mental health a university-wide priority and create ongoing, year round change. With Covid19 remaining a global issue many of our universities are facing major changes with significant impact on the mental health of staff and students. The mental health of our higher education staff and students has never been more important.

What is it?

University Mental Health Day aims to raise awareness of the mental health and well-being needs of those who study and work in higher education settings. The concept was first developed by University Mental Health Advisors' Network in the UK and is now co-ordinated by the UK student mental health charity Student Minds .

How to get involved

Check out #unimentalhealthday on social media or have a look on the Student Minds UK Website to see what University Mental Health Day activities happened there. Digital resources including some kindly edited for our context by Student Minds UK can be downloaded.

If you would like to be involved in the University Mental Health Day, please contact Paula Convery by email or phone 02 4921 7762.

Why have a University Mental Health Day?

According to Universities Australia data snapshot, in 2017 around 1.4 million domestic and international students were educated at our 41 local Australian universities, along with 2 overseas institutes operating here.

Being at university creates unique challenges. The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Orygen states in the report Under the Radar (2017), around 3 in 5 of our students are aged between 15 and 24 years. At least 1 in 4 of them experience mental ill-health in any one year.

From 2006 until 2016 there was an increase of 123% in number of students with a disability; a 105% increase in Indigenous students; a 66% increase in students from low SES and a 50% increase in regional and remote students.

Around 130,000 full time equivalent staff were employed by the university sector in 2017. Workplace mental health conditions are common and can result in significant impact on individuals and organisations. Creating a mentally healthy workplace is therefore likely to result in significant benefits for organisations and our economy with university education adding $140 billion to the Australian economy in 2014.

Steering Committee and Sponsor

Thank you to our kind sponsor ANZSSA for supporting this initiative and to the members of the University Mental Health Day Steering Committee for their coordination of the event. Thanks also to past members including: John Alford University of Tasmania; Daniel Persaud University of Melbourne; Ben Chandler University of Adelaide.

Useful resources

Five ways to Wellbeing provides strategies to improve your mental health in your everyday life and was developed by the UK New Economics Foundation. This app can be downloaded free to your android or iphone.