Warwick holds Mental Health Awareness Week

As part of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) the Students’ Union (SU) aims to raise awareness and remove the negative stereotypes surrounding metal illnesses.

There are a variety of sources of support available here at Warwick, open to any students who have a concern for their own mental wellbeing or that of others: from the University Counselling Service to the Student Advice centre at the SU. MHAW’s aim is to further publicise these services and raise awareness towards mental health more generally, trying to remove the stigma towards mental illnesses while fundraising for several organisations, such as Papyrus and Mind, who share similar aims.

Talks held during the week ranged from Depression and Anxiety by Joy Mitra, an Associate Professor at Warwick, to a talk on Body Image and Eating Disorders led by the CEO and founder of Succeed Foundation, Karine Berthou.

Coinciding with the University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day on Wednesday 22 February the SU signed the Time to Change Pledge, declaring a commitment to combat all forms of discrimination towards mental health issues at the University, joining the FA, NHS trusts and other universities.

Time to Change, England’s largest mental health anti-stigma campaign, have recently released the results of a survey revealing that more than 90 percent of students said that they had felt unusually stressed while at university, with approximately half blaming stress that resulted from their financial situation.

This problem is not specific to Warwick. Despite almost two-thirds of students surveyed by Time to Change admitting some mental health problem, nationwide less than one per cent declared any mental health disability on their application form.

Holly Rutland, a second-year psychology student involved in MHAW explained that “people don’t realise just how common mental health problems are.” She added that “one in every four people will suffer from mental health problems at some point in their lives.”

Chanchala Patra, this year’s MHAW coordinator, said that “as part of such a good university, students at Warwick strive for perfection.” This is why, she suggested, there is such a stigma on mental health at the university, it being perceived as an imperfection of some sort. Patra said that “when students first come to university, they want to fit in, not stand out, but mental health problems are not something to be embarrassed about.” This is why MHAW aims to break the stigma. “It is an open topic; it is not something to be scared of.”

With the rising cost of living and tuition fees going up next year at Warwick, the fear is that stress levels will rise too. MHAW wants academic staff and students to be aware that such issues are normal and there are support services already in place to help with any problems. Its mantra being: mental health isn’t something people should be afraid to talk about.