{"id":4729,"date":"2019-10-10T10:29:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T09:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=4729"},"modified":"2019-10-10T12:16:25","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T11:16:25","slug":"embedding-essential-wellbeing-skills-into-our-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/embedding-essential-wellbeing-skills-into-our-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"Embedding essential wellbeing skills into our curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr Martin Watts explains how essential mental health and wellbeing skills are being embedded into the Arts and Humanities Foundation Year curriculum.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In a recent survey reported by The Guardian<\/a>, over 90%\nof university students wanted their institutions to offer lessons in how to\nlook after their mental health and wellbeing, helping them to cope with issues\nsuch as anxiety, loneliness and stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nour Foundation Year students studying Arts and Humanities we have recently introduced\na compulsory module, which is studied during their first semester, to help them\ntransition into university life and take proactive steps to look after their\nown mental health and wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\ntime last year, as the 4th cohort of our popular Arts and Humanities Foundation\nyear was settling in, we reviewed all modules in the usual annual manner, and were\nstruck by the number of students requiring mental health and wellbeing support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arts and Humanities Foundation year started in 2015 and the\nnumber of students on the programme has grown from 26 to over 120, with the proportion\nof students arriving with declared mental health issues and other disabilities increasing\nyear on year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the 2017\/18 year those students who declared a\nmental health issue peaked at almost 40%. The effect of this was to stretch the\nexcellent University support services and, when referrals were made to the NHS,\ndelays in appointments meant that some students were struggling to complete\ntheir course and failing to enjoy university life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the annual review of the programme it was decided that a\nproactive approach was needed, to ease pressure on the existing reactive system\nand to ensure that support was delivered up front as early as possible. The Foundation\nYear team decided that the best way to achieve this was to embed a compulsory\nsupport module within the first semester, with the objective of placing students\nin charge of their own wellbeing and university life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new module, ‘Life and Study’ was devised in collaboration\nwith colleagues from the chaplaincy, employability, student support and wellbeing\nand sports science departments, all of whom offered encouragement and support.\n‘Life and Study’ was subsequently validated earlier this year and is now 3\nweeks into its first presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The module consists of several sections delivered by front\nline staff from all of the aforementioned departments, supplemented by academic\ngroup leaders who run seminars enabling students to reflect on what they have\nlearned. Students are then encouraged to apply this knowledge and practice to\ntheir own situation, as they seek to obtain a healthy work and study life\nbalance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the major benefits of this delivery is that all students are introduced to expert colleagues who are devoted to their wellbeing just after arrival at university. The sessions, delivered by our professionals, also enables colleagues to establish a good understanding of our student cohort, and the interaction facilitated by active learning not only builds a supportive team environment, but also ensures that everyone, in a typically diverse cohort, feels included in what is a burgeoning academic and scholarly community. <\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Each section of the module runs over 2 or 3 weeks and consists of\nlectures, presentations and activities, followed by the group seminars\nmentioned above. The academic skills part of the module is also covered in\nthe seminars with students being introduced to critical reading and\nsummarising of key texts, related to each section in turn. For example,\nthe first section, delivered by the chaplaincy, focuses on the purpose of\nuniversity and what it means to be a human being, with a key academic\ntext concentrating on the philosophical debate covering post enlightenment\neducation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst we are still at an early stage, attendance has been very\nhigh (90% +) and the students are responding well to the lectures and seminar\nactivities. We will continue to review and assess this new module to ensure\nthat our students are able to thrive in their new environment, and enjoy their academic\njourney and university experience at Christ Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Martin Watts is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities<\/a> and Programme Director for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities Foundation Year.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Martin Watts explains how essential mental health and wellbeing skills are being embedded into the Arts and Humanities Foundation Year curriculum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":4741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3073],"tags":[9,3074,749],"class_list":["post-4729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-humanities","tag-mental-health","tag-study-skills","tag-wellbeing"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Jeanette Earl","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/437\/2019\/10\/students.jpg","postExcerpt":"Dr Martin Watts explains how essential mental health and wellbeing skills are being embedded into the Arts and Humanities Foundation Year curriculum.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4729"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4754,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729\/revisions\/4754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}