SMARtEN: Student Mental Health Research Network

我们的愿景是改变所有学生的高等教育体验，实现支持学生茁壮成长的教育系统的雄心。我们的网络将全面了解学生的心理健康，包括良好的心理健康对学生意味着什么，以及可以有针对性地改善所有学生的心理健康的风险和保护因素。学生的心理健康一直受到政治、公众和专业人士的极大关注。据报道，大学生的心理健康水平是全国最低的之一。该领域的求助人数急剧上升，一些机构报告称，四分之一的学生要么被大学咨询服务机构看到，要么正在等待被看到。从2010年开始的五年里，经历过心理健康问题的学生从大学辍学、欠下学费、却无法拿出“毕业生工资溢价”的人数增加了210%。虽然当学生从大学辍学时，公共投资显然会失去回报，但高等教育系统也有广阔的机会来支持年轻人在现在和未来茁壮成长。关于学生心理健康的趋势或如何最好地应对，没有明确的说法。因此，制定有效的解决办法并为协调一致的机构反应分配资源是困难的，而且产生意外后果的可能性增加。在过去15年里，在蓬勃发展的商业市场的管理和推动下，在教育系统的各个层面上，非专业性、一般性的心理情绪干预的特别安排有所增加。与包括讲师、教学部门负责人和大学咨询和支助服务负责人在内的利益攸关方进行的广泛讨论表明，对于正在发生的事情以及如何最好地应对，存在矛盾和分歧。我们的跨学科团队致力于研究和开放的辩论，着眼于风险和利益之间的平衡，解决有争议的和复杂的问题，并不假设任何干预措施本身就是一件“好事”。我们网络的出发点是，没有单一的答案来理解学生心理健康面临的挑战，没有单一的解决方案，也没有单一的学科可以应对所有的挑战。我们的团队汇集了在学生福祉、心理学、流行病学、社会和经济研究、人类学、人种学、信息学、社交媒体、大数据、艺术、文化、教育、行为科学和心理健康方面的专业研究人员。随着网络的发展，我们将吸引更多不同的经验和专业知识。该网络的重点将是了解学生的心理健康和心理健康问题。我们将回答三个问题：(1)学生的心理健康体验有什么独特之处？(2)影响学生心理健康的因素是什么？以及(3)学生心理健康的非临床通用方法能实现什么？与学生和关键利益相关者(学生支持服务、教育工作者和临床医生)的接触将使研究的好处和影响最大化，并鼓励知识交流。学生参与将是该网络核心活动的核心，包括建立一个学生研究团队，一个确定学生优先研究问题的优先确定伙伴关系，两个学生主导的心理健康会议，以及在其他网络活动中的大力参与。网络活动将集中于四轮“+”融资，每轮包括研讨会和活动，以支持知识交流，鼓励合作，促进用户参与，并支持早期职业研究人员的创造性应用。

Our vision is to change the Higher Education experience for all students and realise the ambition of an education system that supports students to thrive. Our network will build a comprehensive understanding of student mental health, including what good mental health means to students and the risk and protective factors that can be targeted to improve all students' mental health. There has been great political, public and professional concern about students' mental health. The mental wellbeing reported by university students is among the lowest across the population. The sector has seen a dramatic rise in help-seeking with some institutions reporting that 1 in 4 of their students are either being seen by the university counselling service or are waiting to be seen. In the five years from 2010, there was a 210% increase in students with experience of mental health problems dropping out of university, incurring tuition fee debt and yet unable to yield a 'graduate wage premium.' While there is an obvious loss of return on public investment when students drop out of university, there are also expansive opportunities for a Higher Education system to support young adults to thrive in the present and future.There is no clear narrative about the trends in student mental health or how best to respond. As such, developing effective solutions and allocating resources for a coherent institutional response is difficult and the potential for unintended consequences increases. The past 15 years have seen a rise in ad hoc arrangements of non-specialist, generic psycho-emotional interventions at all levels of the education system, administered and promoted by a flourishing commercial market. Extensive discussion with stakeholders, including lecturers, heads of teaching departments and heads of university counselling and support services, shows ambivalence and disagreement about what is happening and how best to respond. Our cross-disciplinary team is committed to research and open-minded debate that looks at the balance between risk and benefit, addresses the contested and complicated questions and does not assume that any intervention must be a "good thing" in and of itself. The starting point for our network is that there is no single answer to understanding the challenges for student mental health, no single solution and no single discipline that can address all of the challenges. Our team brings together researchers with expertise in student wellbeing, psychology, epidemiology, social and economic research, anthropology, ethnography, informatics, social media, big data, arts, culture, education, behavioural science and mental health. As the network develops we will engage still more diverse experience and expertise. The focus of the network will be to understand student mental health and mental health problems. We will address three questions; (1) What is distinctive about the mental health experiences of students? (2) What factors influence student mental health? and (3) What can non-clinical universal approaches to student mental health achieve?Engagement with students and key stakeholders (student support services, educators and clinicians) will maximise the benefits and impact of research and encourage knowledge exchange. Student engagement will be central to the network's core activities and include the development of a Student Research Team, a Priority Setting Partnership to establish students' priority research questions, two student-led mental health conferences and strong engagement across the other network activities. Network activities will focus on four 'plus' funding rounds with each round including workshops and activities to support knowledge exchange, encourage collaboration, facilitate user engagement, and support creative applications from Early Career Researchers.