Dr Katrina Forbes-McKay k.e.forbes-mckay@rgu.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer
Enhancing our understanding of the wellbeing and support needs of RGU students.
Forbes-McKay, Katrina; Henderson, Sarah
Authors
Dr Sarah Henderson s.e.henderson@rgu.ac.uk
Principal Lecturer
Abstract
The mental wellbeing of university students is of growing concern. Indeed, HESA (2022) reported 122,530 students with a recorded mental health condition in the UK in 2016/17. Many students, however, do not access support for mental health (Rosenthal and Wilson, 2008). The main barriers to accessing support include limited awareness of services, fear of stigma (Harris et al. 2016), lack of available counselor appointments (Mowbray et al. 2006) and not believing they need treatment (Czyz et al. 2013). The aim of this study was to explore students' views on how to improve the monitoring of mental wellbeing and the barriers to accessing support at RGU. A qualitative descriptive approach was employed. 113 students were recruited via opportunistic sampling and completed an online JISC survey. The main themes identified during thematic analysis included the need to provide supportive and engaging personal tutor relationships, to regularly monitor and respond to student wellbeing, to promote enhanced wellbeing and improve signposting to resources. Worry, lack of awareness about services, failing to admit they have a problem, fear of being let down, and judgement were identified as the main barriers to accessing support.
Citation
FORBES-MCKAY, K. and HENDERSON, S. 2022. Enhancing our understanding of the wellbeing and support needs of RGU students. Presented at the 2022 RGU annual learning and teaching conference (RGU LTC 2022): enhancing for impact, 21 October 2022, Aberdeen, UK.
Presentation Conference Type | Presentation / Talk |
---|---|
Conference Name | 2022 RGU annual learning and teaching conference (RGU LTC 2022): enhancing for impact |
Start Date | Oct 21, 2022 |
Deposit Date | Mar 3, 2023 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 3, 2023 |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Keywords | Undergraduate students; Mental health; Health and wellbeing in higher education |
Public URL | https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1898827 |
Related Public URLs | https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1839941 (Full Proceedings) |
Files
FORBES-MCKAY 2022 Enhancing our understanding (SV)
(84.7 Mb)
Archive
You might also like
The very real horror.
(2023)
Journal Article
Educational attendance and offending outcomes.
(2021)
Report
Downloadable Citations
About OpenAIR@RGU
Administrator e-mail: publications@rgu.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search