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Students
Mind your head on World Mental Health Day
As first year students across Northern Ireland embark on
third-level education courses, the Health Promotion Agency
for Northern Ireland (HPA) and the NUS-USI, the student movement
in Northern Ireland, have joined forces to support young
people starting university and college.
Mind
your head, a student guide to healthy minds in healthy
bodies, which was developed by the HPA and NUS-USI and sponsored
by Investing for Health, will be given to students at the
start of the new term to coincide with World Mental Health
Day (WMHD) on 10 October 2005.
Deirdre McNamee,
Senior Manager for Mental Health at the HPA said: “Young
people at this stage in their lives have a lot of issues
to contend with such as living away
from home, financial concerns, exam pressures, job prospects,
as well as adapting to the student lifestyle and everything
that entails. A HPA study of 16-24 year olds, which was published
in 2001, found that over half (54%) of respondents worried
most often about school or university work, exams and career
prospects.1
“This resource
provides support with practical tips and information on
mental and emotional wellbeing as well
as useful contact numbers. Our partnership with the student
movement is vital in reaching the young people this resource
aims to help and we hope to develop other initiatives in
partnership with NUS-USI in the future.”
Mental health problems such as sleep disorders, stress,
anxiety and behavioural and emotional disorders are relatively
common among young people. It is estimated that around 20%
of adolescents experience such problems and between 2% and
8% of them suffer from major depressions. Many of these mental
health problems may continue into adulthood.2
Damien
Kavanagh, NUS-USI Convenor said: “Mental wellbeing
is possibly the most important aspect of student life, and
we are delighted to re-launch this campaign with the Health
Promotion Agency. Through this year-long campaign the student
movement will be calling for the better provision of resources
for the promotion of mental wellbeing, both on and off campuses.
“This
guide will empower students who use it to be more aware
of who
to turn to if they are having
problems. It is also hoped, as a principle objective of
the campaign, that students will enhance their personal understandings
of mental wellbeing.”
Over
the next few weeks 30,000 copies of Mind
your head,
will be distributed to first year students in further and
higher education settings across Northern Ireland. A further
2,000 support guides, developed to assist student advisers,
tutors and practitioners in supporting young people, will
also be distributed.
The theme of this
year’s WMHD is ‘there is no
health without mental health’ and urges increased awareness
and understanding that good physical and good mental health
are important for successful growth and development at all
stages of life.
END
Notes to the editors
WMHD, which first started in 1992, is a global mental health education, awareness
and advocacy project of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global
mental health organisation with members and contacts in more than 150 countries.
1 Design
for living –research to support young people’s
mental health and wellbeing. HPA 2001.
2 Health Committee, House of Commons. Child and adolescent
mental health services. London: House of Commons, 1997.
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