{"id":9315,"date":"2018-11-07T11:21:57","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T11:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/cel\/?p=9315"},"modified":"2018-11-07T11:21:57","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T11:21:57","slug":"wonkfest-18-bu-head-of-student-services-mandi-barron-contributes-to-the-student-mental-health-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/2018\/11\/07\/wonkfest-18-bu-head-of-student-services-mandi-barron-contributes-to-the-student-mental-health-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonkfest 18: BU Head of Student Services Mandi Barron contributes to the student mental health debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/wonkhe.com\/blogs\/wonkfest18-live\/#debate-stage-crisis-what-crisis-is-student-mental-health-really-a-no-brainier\">Debate Stage: crisis, what crisis? Is student mental health really a \u201cno brainer\u201d?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Student mental health is making headlines almost daily \u2013 so this session was (unsurprisingly) packed.\u00a0But kicked off by focusing whether or not this amounts to a \u2018crisis\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><em>Chris Shelley, Director of Student Academic Services, University of Greenwich reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Tressler set out five solutions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>to build the research base<\/li>\n<li>to listen more to students and co-produce services with them<\/li>\n<li>to adopt a whole university approach and institutional leadership<\/li>\n<li>to support transition at every stage of the education system<\/li>\n<li>to invest in services, including the wider NHS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Neil Mackenzie, Head of Advice &amp; Representation, Sheffield Students\u2019 Union.<\/p>\n<p>Mackenzie said he was expecting to major on academic policy initially \u2013 but his focus shifted to mental health. His team identified issues with the univeristy \u201cfetishising waiting times\u201d, departmental autonomy and under-investment \u2013 but above all, genuine surprise at the scale of the problem.<\/p>\n<p>Mackenzie said unions aren\u2019t clinicians so need to work closely with university services. And their role is to connect outcomes with social policy to prevent issues from resurfacing. Mackenzie stressed the need to accept unions can\u2019t fix everything and cited the huge number of external pressures on students beyond universities\u2019 reach.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-9316\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/files\/2018\/11\/IMG-0247_MandiBarron-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/files\/2018\/11\/IMG-0247_MandiBarron-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/files\/2018\/11\/IMG-0247_MandiBarron-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/files\/2018\/11\/IMG-0247_MandiBarron-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/files\/2018\/11\/IMG-0247_MandiBarron.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\n<p>Mandi Barron, Head of Student Services Bournemouth University and AMOSSHE<\/p>\n<p>Barron spoke as a service leader and a mother of a graduate. Barron doesn\u2019t believe there is a crisis \u2013 but that we are more aware of it as a society. The perception stems in part from sensationalised media coverage, which in turn creates pressure on staff. Financial advice can be a key to reducing stress related to debt \u2013 and many students come to university without support networks. She believes we shouldn\u2019t be duplicating NHS services \u2013 but providing appropriate support and guidance to help students navigate higher education.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Eva Crossen Jody, Vice-President NUS (Welfare).<\/p>\n<p>Crossen Jody argued too often universities separate themselves from the NHS in campaigning. She said this was an error \u2013 higher education needs a fully functioning NHS.<\/p>\n<p>She said there was no such thing as a typical student so services shouldn\u2019t be one-size-fits-all. She argues that access to services should be looked at \u2013 such as being delivered in students\u2019 first language, having dedicated support for survivors of sexual assault, and being accessed across the year not in six session blocks. Peer-led programmes can be successful but students need services they can trust.<\/p>\n<p>Crossen Jody also argued that this crisis shouldn\u2019t be seen isolation, there is a link to tuition fees, debt and accommodation costs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jenny Shaw, Director of Student Experience, Unite Students<\/p>\n<p>Shaw cited Unite Students has tracked a rise in declaration of disability or mental health condition, they have also seen a rise in complex cases within residences, and reports of sexual assault. She stated the desire for a multi-agency approach, which is happening. Transition between different stages in education is crucial \u2013 discussion with parents reveal they speak to students \u201cabout pots and pans\u201d but not emotional preparation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Debate Stage: crisis, what crisis? Is student mental health really a \u201cno brainer\u201d? &nbsp; Student mental health is making headlines almost daily \u2013 so this session was (unsurprisingly) packed.\u00a0But kicked off by focusing whether or not this amounts to a \u2018crisis\u2019. Chris Shelley, Director of Student Academic Services, University of Greenwich reports Tressler set out&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/2018\/11\/07\/wonkfest-18-bu-head-of-student-services-mandi-barron-contributes-to-the-student-mental-health-debate\/\">Read more &raquo;<span class=\"sr-only\"> about Wonkfest 18: BU Head of Student Services Mandi Barron contributes to the student mental health debate<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1294,"featured_media":2062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[197,308,839,703],"tags":[1004,1006,1005,891,1007,565],"class_list":["post-9315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conference-report","category-he-students","category-mental-health","category-postgraduate-student","tag-amosshe","tag-nus-welfare","tag-sheffield-students-union","tag-student-mental-health","tag-unite-students","tag-university-of-greenwich"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9317,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9315\/revisions\/9317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}