The Student Support and Wellbeing Team, alongside colleagues from the Counselling and Mental Health, hosted an event to mark University Mental Health Day on Thursday 14th March.
Alongside other universities across the UK, we hosted our event to empower students to build their own mental health toolkit to support themselves and their peers during university life. We had materials from external organisation, such as Student Space from Student Minds, Papyrus and the Samaritans. We also had information about University services, such as firstpoint, STAR appointments, and Study Happy from Library Services.
Our special guests on the day were our very welcome furry friends from Pets as Therapy: Otis, Tosca, Dana, Henry and Monty – and their humans of course! Tosca exhibited elegant star quality while posing for photos with many of our students (and a few staff members too), while Otis enjoyed rolling around and having his tummy tickled!
Dana, Henry and Monty joined our Fancy a Cuppa event at firstpoint and had a lot of fun being centre of attention.
As part of the event, we had a spin-the-wheel game and asked students to give us answers to questions about how they look after their wellbeing – thank you to all the students who took part and gave us such great answers. Everyone who participated received a goodie-bag (while stocks lasted), which included our “Wellbeing Check-In” booklet, along with playing cards, sweeties, lots of support information and a “Night Time” tea-bag.
Here are the questions we asked, and a summary of the answers that you gave us:
How do you prepare for sleep?
The popular answers included having a bedtime routine, such as: having a warm drink in bed, reading before going to sleep, listening to calming music and setting out clothes for the next day.
What activity energises you?
Walking, being in nature and dancing were common answers. However other hobbies, such as yoga, kickboxing and horse riding were also mentioned.
How do you balance work and study?
For many students, we appreciate that having a good balance can feel tricky! Some of the popular answers for this question were: setting time windows to each activity, prioritising the importance of tasks to complete and scheduling in study breaks. Some students told us that they struggle to balance work and study with their other responsibilities.
What is your self-care activity?
Students mentioned that self-care to them was having a break from their studies to participate in their hobbies. Hobbies that were mentioned included: baking, playing the piano and cold-water swimming, with students saying that these helped with their mood and mindfulness. Other forms of self-care such as being in nature, watching a sunrise or sunset and meditation were also mentioned.
What helps you feel safe and secure?
Speaking to friends and family was the most popular answer to this question! Students also reported that to them, feeling safe and secure comes from their immediate environment, being within a community that they feel safe in and the comfort of their pets.
We had a great time running our event, meeting so many students and hearing their thoughts and ideas on these questions.
We also appreciate that things don’t always go as smoothly as we would like, and we would encourage anyone struggling with their university experience to get in touch with the Student Support and Wellbeing Team by emailing studentlife@worc.ac.uk.
Remember, the Pets As Therapy dogs also visit us at the ‘Fancy A Cuppa?’ events hosted by the Student Wellbeing Champions on Tuesdays.
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