Resources and coping strategies

Mark: Hello, my name is Mark Wilkinson I am the head of the Student Wellbeing and Inclusion service.

Nike: Hi, my name is Nike Oruh, I'm a clinical lead counsellor at Napier University.

Ekamdeep: Hi everyone, I'm Ekamdeep Bumra, I'm Student School President for Sports and Wellbeing for ENSA

Nike: And today we're going to be discussing lots of aspects about mental health and wellbeing and how students can get support through Napier.

[On-screen text: Let’s talk – A conversation with Student Wellbeing and Inclusion’s Mark Wilkinson and Nike Oruh, alongside ENSA’s Ekamdeep Bumra.]

Mark: So Nike, you've been with us about two years, I think, since you joined us, and you joined us as a student counsellor. So could you tell us a bit of what drew you into that profession? And why do you think it's so important that we all seek to be mindful of our mental health and prioritize our mental well-being?

Nike: Yeah, well, to give you a bit of context, before I was a counsellor I was involved in sort of community work with young people, sexual health and emotional health already, and just seeing the impact that that has on people's development. And then prior to that I was in health and nutrition as a dietitian, so for me your health and your wellbeing, they go hand in hand.

A lot of times people focus a lot on physical health. If you have an injury or you broke your arm, you would go to the doctor and you would heal it, and I think we're now starting to see that mental wellbeing is as essential as physical wellbeing and that they go hand in hand.

And so for me working as a counsellor and coming to Napier is to some degree expressing that and sharing that information, that knowledge, and making that, destigmatizing it and letting people know that we all experience mental wellness in varying degrees. And conversely we'll also struggle at different times. So like your health, sometimes you may have a cold or you may feel run down. With your mental health, there'll be times when you're feeling great or you're feeling in a great place and other times where you may struggle.

A big part of my work is giving people the tools to be able to manage that, to go okay this is what I can do if I'm struggling. And that's not just things like mindfulness—it could be joining groups that are in ENSA, so socialising, it could be: am I sleeping enough, what's my diet? So you're getting a holistic view of being a functioning person, to be able to thrive.

And so to be able to do that, you kind of use the person-centred approach, which is kind of the discipline I trained under. It's like a plant needs water, they also need soil, I also need sunlight. So you wouldn't just say okay I've got enough water—it also needs to have these other elements for it to flourish. And I think prioritizing your mental well-being is part of that so that you can flourish.

Mark: I think that's an amazing idea, the idea of flourishing.

Nike: It’s not my metaphor!

Mark: It may not be, but claim it right now, because I think sometimes there is the idea of stigma associated with looking for support or assistance with your mental health, but the way you've described it there, it's very much about personal development, about definitely learning, gaining tools and about managing better in the future. We talk in the student world about fulfilling your potential, but what an amazing idea that we're here to support our students to actually to flourish. It's beautiful, I love that.

Ekam, Can you tell us a bit about why it's not straightforward for all of our students just to fulfill the potential and to flourish at University? What are the kinds of challenges, maybe particularly for men at University that can impact on mental wellbeing?

Ekam: Our students are not ready to believe that they are not mentally fit all the time. They don't want to agree on this thing, so if you talk about like you should have a therapy, or if something is going wrong, they will think like oh maybe they're talking like they're thinking I'm mentally ill or something and no one is ready to agree on that. The students I met, at least. So I think that’s the main reason.

We try whenever we are doing the campaigns, as ENSA, we are doing the campaigns or we are trying to be on the campuses, so whenever there's any chat or something regarding to the stress level or something stress regarding the housing, stress regarding the assignments and stuff like that, we try to signpost them to the wellbeing service or the ENSA Advice service so that they can get the professional help. Because I know the advice and the services that you guys and the ENSA Advice can provide, that we can't do that. So I think that's the main reason, specifically the men.

Mark: I think you're right, because if we think about it, it doesn't really matter where you're coming from to come to University, and it implies a huge change in your life, a big transition. But particularly if you're coming from overseas, you're coming to a different culture and English may not be your first language, you've got to think about where you're going to live, have you got enough money, where's the food that I would normally be eating and where can I buy that… From a different way of studying and learning potentially, and there are so many big changes that I think it can be quite a challenge for students to find their feet in their new country and at their new University.

And that's why I think it's important that we've got complementary services and different kinds of services that can be quite proactive and reach out to students as well as those that are maybe more about a student coming to us, the counselling team, when they recognise that maybe they're not in a place where they can fulfil that academic potential.

Nike: That's right. I think the drop-ins are a great space to sort of what you call almost like a triage so if someone's a bit unsure of am I struggling, you know I do feel like I'm feeling a bit down but I don't think I'm depressed though… So you know you can go along to a drop-in or you can contact ENSA Advice and have that conversation, say okay this is what's going on.

And in many cases you may not need to have further CBT or counselling—it may be signposting to study skills and maybe signposting to Keep on Track. You may need a letter of support for an extension. Those sort of things will be available to you, and I always think that if you can address things sooner, you have more options. Options are a great thing to have. The longer you leave things, often those options reduce and there's less opportunity to change your situation or your circumstances.

Mark: Would you agree that's one of our key messages for our students today—is reach out to us early?

Nike: Yes definitely, and then you're have a much better chance of engaging with support and services in order that the bumps in the road might be much smaller than they could be otherwise. What have you got to lose?

Mark: Brilliant, absolutely. You know, we've touched a bit on the challenge there associated with maybe it's about being vulnerable and being a man and being vulnerable and that's a difficult thing for a lot of blokes. I think it stops them wanting to reach out for help.

Nike, what's your view on that? How would you persuade a bunch of guys that they should think about their mental health and wellbeing and make use of services?

Nike: I mean I think the word vulnerability is a key word, and what I would say is that to become strong or to develop strength and capacity of strength, that often does require some vulnerability. They almost go hand in hand. For a lot of guys who go to the gym, the reason that they want to get stronger or how to get stronger is by working through something that's difficult, by lifting heavier weight to get stronger. So you almost have to go through that process of exploring that vulnerability or weakness to be able to progress to the next place.

So I think being vulnerable actually goes hand in hand with strength. Most people or things that have strength have been vulnerable at some point before they got to that point, and I think recognising that we all experience vulnerabilities in one way or another, whether that's around our family, it may be around studying or exams, it could be around our financial situation… Once you can identify that, then you can begin the process of addressing it or learning to manage to cope with it.