​June 2022 is Pride Month in the UK, an opportunity to celebrate LGBTQ+ identities, but also recognise inequalities of experiences for these communities. We highlight below a range of resources and research to do with mental health and wellbeing in LGBTQ+ young people and students and end with some reflections on the current situation within UK HE.

There is concerning evidence that only 20% of UK students struggling with their mental health during the pandemic sought help (National Union of Students, 2020). Mental health problems are ultimately associated with negative outcomes, including lower grades (Duffy et al., 2020)
 
Yet, there is a substantial gap between need for help and access to it. It’s hard to ask for help, and even when help is sought, students often have to wait for it to start and disengagement is common.

My name is Nebiyah Dyer I am a Graduate Inclusion Intern on the Culturally Responsive Mental Health and Wellbeing project at Kingston University. My work supports the production of literature, university data, and implementation strategies which will be used to embed culturally sensitive mental health literacies into the curriculum.
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I have been working with Danielle Chavrimootoo Senior Lecturer in Teaching and Learning at Kingston University. Danielle’s work focuses on Inclusive Curriculum Projects, she is also The Equality Diversity and Inclusion Lead for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and Doctoral Candidate at Lancaster University. 

We are working towards training academic staff on how to embed culturally responsive mental health and wellbeing literacies into the curriculum.

Anne-Laure Le Cunff, PhD candidate at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London
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Twitter: @anthilemoon

The brain has different kinds of memory, including sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory. Information may only be stored in long-term memory after first being processed by working memory. However, working memory is inherently limited in capacity and duration. Cognitive load refers to the used amount of working memory resources, which may affect the way we learn.

The SMaRteN Student Cohorts website has been launched!
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• The project will establish cross-sector standardisation and comparability for longitudinal student wellbeing research across UK universities.
• Researchers from UK universities can receive a Cohort Starter Kit and practical guidance to setup their own cohort study.
• Student involvement will underpin this work.

There is limited robust data about mental health and wellbeing of university students. We don’t know what are the rates of mental health problems, what are the risk and protective factors, and what are the best strategies to intervene, to prevent, to detect difficulties, and to provide support. Longitudinal cohort studies are becoming a popular research design and UK universities are beginning to take advantage of this method to tackle the problem of wellbeing among the student population. If implemented effectively, cohorts allow us to efficiently follow up a population over time, to understand changes in wellbeing, to link with external data sources, and to embed trials within the cohort for rapid evaluation.