Developing and Evaluating a Stepped Change Whole-University approach for Student Wellbeing and Mental Health

制定和评估针对学生福祉和心理健康的阶梯式变革全大学方法

• 批准号: MR/W002442/1
• 负责人: Edward Watkins
• 金额: $ 488.09万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FW002442%2F1
• 关键词: Developing; Evaluating; Stepped; Change; Whole

Promoting good mental health within university students is a priority. Anxiety, depression and self-harm are rapidly increasing. University mental health services report demand beyond their capacity. Effective ways to prevent student mental difficulties are urgently needed. Further, university should be a positive life experience and promote students' emotional fitness and ability to thrive.Research and student feedback recommend changing university culture, environment and teaching to promote wellbeing. Stepped care in which students move through different steps based on need is also suggested to improve student wellbeing and service capacity. This starts with wellbeing promotion and prevention for all students, steps up to self-help for those with mild symptoms and to professional support for those with elevated symptoms. However, these approaches have not been rigorously tested in universities. We don't know which elements best promote good student mental health. We don't know what approaches work best for the diverse student body across gender, ethnicity, sexuality, sociodemographic background. We will test initiatives within the university environment and at each of the steps, see which initiatives students use, how well they work, and identify which work best for which students across diverse groups. Students will be active partners in shaping, delivering and evaluating all research. We will use repeated twice-yearly online surveys across 6 universities (110k undergraduates) to assess student wellbeing and mental health and understand what helps or hinders students seeking and getting help. A digital self-monitoring tool allows students to track their wellbeing, stress, and what support they use over time so we can map how they move through stepped care and how different steps interact with each other. To test whether changing university environment promotes wellbeing, first we will evaluate embedding compassion into education: teaching about diversity and mental health, practising kindness and understanding for self and others, and making assessment more flexible and responsive to students. Focus groups will explore how students experience this approach. Second, we will introduce a voluntary online mental health literacy course for first year undergraduates that teaches what influences mental health, how to promote wellbeing and how to seek help. Surveys before and after the course will test if it increases students' knowledge, healthy behaviours, helps-seeking and wellbeing. To better understand how to make self-help work for students, randomised trials will test book-based guided self-help to build personal strengths, unguided digital self-help to prevent depression in high-worrying students and digital self-help for depression and anxiety. We will compare supported versus unsupported digital cognitive-behavioural therapy, meditation and peer support apps to find out which app(s) students find most acceptable and explore which students most benefit from. We will test self-help with and without support because unsupported self-help can reach vastly more people and there is uncertainty about whether and for whom supported self-help is more effective. To improve the efficiency of student mental health services, we will test if adding a digital self-monitoring tool shared between student and clinician improves student experience and time to recovery by enabling care to be more proactive and responsive (e.g., more frequent meetings if symptoms rise). From this research, we will develop an evidence-based integrated model of inclusive and acceptable student wellbeing and mental health support. In partnership with students and university leaders, this model will inform policy recommendations. We will develop guidance, courses and tools to promote student wellbeing that are easily added to existing systems or that use tried-and-tested low-cost technology to ease their adoption and ongoing use.

促进大学生的良好心理健康是重中之重。焦虑、抑郁和自残正在迅速增加。大学心理健康服务报告说，需求超出了他们的能力。迫切需要有效的方法来预防学生的心理问题。此外，大学应该是一种积极的生活经历，促进学生的情感健康和茁壮成长的能力。研究和学生反馈建议改变大学文化、环境和教学，以促进福祉。阶梯式护理也建议学生根据需要采取不同的步骤，以提高学生的福利和服务能力。这从促进和预防所有学生的健康开始，逐步为症状轻微的学生提供自助，为症状加重的学生提供专业支持。然而，这些方法还没有在大学里经过严格的测试。我们不知道哪些因素最能促进学生的心理健康。我们不知道哪种方法最适合不同性别、种族、性取向和社会人口背景的学生群体。我们将在大学环境和每个步骤中测试主动性，看看学生使用了哪些主动性，它们的效果如何，并确定哪些主动性最适合不同群体的学生。学生将成为塑造、交付和评估所有研究的积极合作伙伴。我们将在6所大学（11万名本科生）中使用每年两次的重复在线调查来评估学生的健康和心理健康，并了解是什么帮助或阻碍了学生寻求和获得帮助。一个数字自我监控工具可以让学生跟踪他们的健康状况、压力，以及他们长期使用的支持，这样我们就可以绘制出他们如何通过阶梯式护理以及不同步骤之间的相互作用。为了测试变化的大学环境是否会促进幸福感，首先我们将评估将同情心嵌入教育：教授多样性和心理健康，练习对自己和他人的善良和理解，以及使评估更加灵活和响应学生。焦点小组将探讨学生如何体验这种方法。其次，我们将为一年级本科生推出一门自愿在线心理健康素养课程，教授影响心理健康的因素、如何促进健康以及如何寻求帮助。课程前后的调查将测试课程是否增加了学生的知识、健康行为、寻求帮助和幸福感。为了更好地了解如何让自助对学生起作用，随机试验将测试基于书籍的指导自助，以建立个人优势，无指导的数字自助，以防止高度焦虑的学生抑郁，以及数字自助，以治疗抑郁和焦虑。我们将比较支持与不支持的数字认知行为疗法、冥想和同伴支持应用程序，以找出学生最能接受的应用程序，并探索哪些应用程序最能让学生受益。我们将对有支持和没有支持的自助进行测试，因为没有支持的自助可以惠及更多的人，而且不确定有支持的自助是否更有效，对谁更有效。为了提高学生心理健康服务的效率，我们将测试增加一个学生和临床医生之间共享的数字自我监测工具，是否可以通过使护理更加主动和响应（例如，在症状出现时更频繁地会面）来改善学生的体验和恢复时间。从这项研究中，我们将开发一个以证据为基础的综合模型，提供包容和可接受的学生福利和心理健康支持。在与学生和大学领导的合作下，该模型将为政策建议提供信息。我们将开发指导、课程和工具来促进学生的福祉，这些指导、课程和工具可以很容易地添加到现有系统中，或者使用经过验证和测试的低成本技术来简化它们的采用和持续使用。

项目成果

The Impact of Mitigating Circumstances Procedures: Student Satisfaction, Wellbeing and Structural Compassion on the Campus

减轻情节程序的影响：学生满意度、福祉和校园的结构性同情

• DOI: 10.3390/educsci13121230
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Education Sciences
• 影响因子: 3
• 作者: Armstrong N

Assessing the impact of university students' involvement in the first year of Nurture-U: A national student wellbeing research project

评估大学生参与 Nurture-U 第一年的影响：全国学生福祉研究项目

• DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2569345/v1
• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Dooley J

Assessing the impact of university students' involvement in the first year of Nurture-U: a national student wellbeing research project.

• DOI: 10.1186/s40900-023-00478-7
• 发表时间: 2023-10-17
• 期刊: Research involvement and engagement