Developing your Student Mental Health Agreements with Think Positive

The student mental health project at NUS Scotland, Think Positive, is launching a new area of work to help create joint agreements in Scotland's colleges and universities on how to address student mental wellbeing issues.

Evidence shows that students are a group at particular risk of experiencing mental ill health and too often, the student experience can be far from "the best time of your life" that it is so often perceived to be.

Last year the project ran a Student Mental Health Agreements pilot scheme, and since then a great deal has been achieved by the four participating institutions. As the first initiative of this kind in Scotland, the Student Mental Health Agreements have helped bring about structural and long lasting changes and improvements in how student mental health is addressed in Scotland's colleges and universities. Most importantly, it has helped facilitate real changes on the ground to improve the mental wellbeing of students, which will have a number of subsequent benefits for institutions as a whole.

Think Positive is delighted to invite colleges and universities across Scotland to now join this programme. Participating institutions will be expected to identify stakeholders across the institution and students’ association who would be key in taking the Agreements forward. These individuals will then work with Think Positive to establish the content of agreements, detail how these would be achieved and, subsequently, maintain and track progress on agreement work. 

For more information about what has been achieved by the Student Mental Health Agreements so far please download our 2010/11 Review, and for more information on what can be expected of 2012/13 involvement, please download our Student Mental Health Agreements Guide.

If you and your institution is interested in taking part, please indicate this to us by Friday 27th July by emailing katie.rafferty@nus-scotland.org.uk.

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