University signs mental wellbeing pledge

Oct. 28, 2010 - PRLog -- The signing took place at the Faculty of Health, Westbourne Road, Edgbaston on Monday 11 October to coincide with World Mental Health Week 10-16 October. The Pledge was signed by the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health, Professor Ian Blair and Matt Fossey from Time to Change, England’s mental health anti-discrimination programme.

The Faculty decided to sign the pledge to encourage students and staff to have an awareness of their own mental wellbeing. Materials created by the Time to Change campaign are already used by Faculty teaching staff to encourage student nurses to be more aware of their own mental health. Sessions are held that tackle the stigma of mental health by encouraging students to challenge their own attitudes to mental illness and to understand the importance of their own behaviour and how they manage personal stress and anxiety.

Samantha Chapman, Senior Lecturer in Mental Health, said: “More people experience mental illness than dandruff so it is not uncommon and affects many people.

“Often the general perception is that mental health only relates to an individual if they are mentally unwell but actually mental health and wellbeing exists in every person. At Birmingham City University we want to encourage our students and staff to have an awareness of their own mental wellbeing.

“In addition if people become more aware of how to protect and promote their own mental wellbeing this will have a benefit to staff attrition in for example, the NHS, where mental illness is the second biggest reason for staff being off sick.”

The signing of the pledge is not a one-off act for the Faculty as Time to Change’s Matt Fossey has been invited to talk at a student conference next year and there are plans to work with the charity on future projects.

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Birmingham City University is one of the major universities in the UK. As a university we have a distinctive focus on education and research for professional and creative practice and on collaboration with business, industry and the public services.