SMaRteN Student Conference, 17th December 2019
10am – 5pm, Tuesday 17th December, Student Services Centre, University of Cambridge
SMaRteN are seeking contributors for its inaugural one-day conference, co-produced with the SMaRteN Student Research Team, to discuss the latest in student mental health. This event is a not-to-be-missed opportunity for students, practitioners and academics from across the sector to share their ideas, views and experience.
The SMaRteN Conference is unique because we are putting the student voice at its heart. It will be an inclusive environment in which both students and those working in and researching student mental health can interact, and in which open discussion around a complex and contested topic are welcomed. Additionally, we are keen to hear from those with lived experience.
We are calling for a broad range of contributions – presentations, workshops, panel discussions, posters - which broadly reflect the following themes:
Topics may include but are not limited to:
You may opt to give a talk (10-20 mins), lead a break-out workshop (30-50 mins), give a quick-fire talk (3-5 mins), or present a poster.
We warmly encourage expressions of interests from students and early career researchers, as well as practitioners and academics working within or alongside higher education institutions.
Please submit expressions of interest here by midnight on 26th June. Applicants will hear the outcome of their expression of interest by w/c 22th July.
Registration for guest attendance will open shortly, so please hold the date!
- The SMaRteN Student Team
SMaRteN are seeking contributors for its inaugural one-day conference, co-produced with the SMaRteN Student Research Team, to discuss the latest in student mental health. This event is a not-to-be-missed opportunity for students, practitioners and academics from across the sector to share their ideas, views and experience.
The SMaRteN Conference is unique because we are putting the student voice at its heart. It will be an inclusive environment in which both students and those working in and researching student mental health can interact, and in which open discussion around a complex and contested topic are welcomed. Additionally, we are keen to hear from those with lived experience.
We are calling for a broad range of contributions – presentations, workshops, panel discussions, posters - which broadly reflect the following themes:
- Factors influencing student mental health
- How we understand and define ‘mental health’ and ‘mental health problems’
- Non-clinical responses and/or preventative interventions
- Formal and non-formal measures of mental health
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- The impact of curriculum, teaching and assessment and the extent to which these should be framed around mental health concerns
- The impact of contextual factors (e.g. environment on campus)
- The relationship between community and belonging and mental health
- The relationship between mental health, equality, diversity and intersectionality
You may opt to give a talk (10-20 mins), lead a break-out workshop (30-50 mins), give a quick-fire talk (3-5 mins), or present a poster.
We warmly encourage expressions of interests from students and early career researchers, as well as practitioners and academics working within or alongside higher education institutions.
Please submit expressions of interest here by midnight on 26th June. Applicants will hear the outcome of their expression of interest by w/c 22th July.
Registration for guest attendance will open shortly, so please hold the date!
- The SMaRteN Student Team
Arts Meets Health: 14th November, 2019
An event exploring the intersection between the creative arts and student mental health
11am – 3pm, Thursday 14th November, Strand campus, King’s College London
SMaRteN is seeking contributors for its ‘Arts meets Health’ event at King’s College London, 11am-3pm on 14th November. The event will showcase some of the leading practice in projects exploring the intersection between the creative arts and mental health, within higher education.
Are you running a participatory arts project for student mental health and/or wellbeing? Would you like to present your project? We have a few slots available for those wishing to present their work.
Perhaps you encourage creative reflection to help students learn, or organise impromptu singing sessions on campus. Perhaps you use drama techniques in the teaching of your module – like Performing Medicine; one of the projects that will be showcased at Arts Meets Health.
The day will bring together those responsible for arts and wellbeing programmes in order to showcase their work, while providing an exciting networking opportunity.
We would encourage you to involve student participants in your presentations, or at least capture the voice of students who have benefited from your project. The Arts Meets Health event is a prelude to SMaRteN’s funding call, entitled ‘What can non-clinical approaches to student mental health achieve?’
Apply to contribute here. Deadline for expressions of interest for contributors is midnight on the 9th July 2019. We will be in touch with all applicants by early August.
Further information
Timings
Time slots can be flexible, based on the content of demonstrations and workshops, though we anticipate contributions ranging from 30 to 50 minutes. If you require extra time, please contact SMaRteN at smarten@kcl.ac.uk to discuss further.
Format
We imagine that the projects showcased on the day will consist predominantly of demonstrations and interactive workshops, in order to most effectively showcase the ways in which the arts are being used to improve student mental health and wellbeing. However, if your class/workshop would require resources, time or space not accessible or feasible within the context of the event, it may be possible to deliver a presentation or talk. Contact SMaRteN at smarten@kcl.ac.uk to discuss further.
Travel
Arts Meets Health will take place at King’s College London, Strand campus. We have a limited budget for the event, though if you feel travel costs will be prohibitive to you attending, please contact SMaRteN at smarten@kcl.ac.uk to discuss this further.
Delegates
We anticipate an audience of up to 40 people, representing a wide range of academics, practitioners and professional services staff from the SMaRteN network and beyond. Applications to attend Arts Meets Health as a delegate will open shortly.
Registering interest to present your project
Please complete the short expression of interest form here by 9th July. We will be in touch with all applicants by early August. Please note that this is not an expression of interest to attend the event as a delegate. At this stage we are seeking contributors.
11am – 3pm, Thursday 14th November, Strand campus, King’s College London
SMaRteN is seeking contributors for its ‘Arts meets Health’ event at King’s College London, 11am-3pm on 14th November. The event will showcase some of the leading practice in projects exploring the intersection between the creative arts and mental health, within higher education.
Are you running a participatory arts project for student mental health and/or wellbeing? Would you like to present your project? We have a few slots available for those wishing to present their work.
Perhaps you encourage creative reflection to help students learn, or organise impromptu singing sessions on campus. Perhaps you use drama techniques in the teaching of your module – like Performing Medicine; one of the projects that will be showcased at Arts Meets Health.
The day will bring together those responsible for arts and wellbeing programmes in order to showcase their work, while providing an exciting networking opportunity.
We would encourage you to involve student participants in your presentations, or at least capture the voice of students who have benefited from your project. The Arts Meets Health event is a prelude to SMaRteN’s funding call, entitled ‘What can non-clinical approaches to student mental health achieve?’
Apply to contribute here. Deadline for expressions of interest for contributors is midnight on the 9th July 2019. We will be in touch with all applicants by early August.
Further information
Timings
Time slots can be flexible, based on the content of demonstrations and workshops, though we anticipate contributions ranging from 30 to 50 minutes. If you require extra time, please contact SMaRteN at smarten@kcl.ac.uk to discuss further.
Format
We imagine that the projects showcased on the day will consist predominantly of demonstrations and interactive workshops, in order to most effectively showcase the ways in which the arts are being used to improve student mental health and wellbeing. However, if your class/workshop would require resources, time or space not accessible or feasible within the context of the event, it may be possible to deliver a presentation or talk. Contact SMaRteN at smarten@kcl.ac.uk to discuss further.
Travel
Arts Meets Health will take place at King’s College London, Strand campus. We have a limited budget for the event, though if you feel travel costs will be prohibitive to you attending, please contact SMaRteN at smarten@kcl.ac.uk to discuss this further.
Delegates
We anticipate an audience of up to 40 people, representing a wide range of academics, practitioners and professional services staff from the SMaRteN network and beyond. Applications to attend Arts Meets Health as a delegate will open shortly.
Registering interest to present your project
Please complete the short expression of interest form here by 9th July. We will be in touch with all applicants by early August. Please note that this is not an expression of interest to attend the event as a delegate. At this stage we are seeking contributors.
Past Events
Secondary Data Analysis Webinar: general population surveys
Thursday 21st March
Led by Sally McManus from NatCen, this webinar covered topics including:
Miss SMaRteN's Secondary Data Analysis Webinar? Be sure to watch or download the recording below to catch up.
- Discussing the data sets available that allow for comparison of student and non-student mental health
- Clarifying how to access this data
- Considering challenges in working with this data, and approaches that might be taken to navigate these challenges
- Identifying questions that might be addressed through secondary data analysis
Miss SMaRteN's Secondary Data Analysis Webinar? Be sure to watch or download the recording below to catch up.
Sandpit: measuring student mental health
Wednesday 13th March
To catch up on SMaRteN's Sandpit, visit our blog to hear from our very own Student Team about the day.
Through this sandpit we aimed to support collaboration between research groups and universities interested in measuring and tracking student mental health and wellbeing. Over 40 people from across a variety of universities and organisations, including members from our own student research team, attended the event.
Key topics for discussion on the day were:
Through this sandpit we aimed to support collaboration between research groups and universities interested in measuring and tracking student mental health and wellbeing. Over 40 people from across a variety of universities and organisations, including members from our own student research team, attended the event.
Key topics for discussion on the day were:
- Preliminary feedback from the SMaRteN student-led research team project on measuring student mental health and wellbeing
- Preliminary early feedback from SMarRteN work on student ethnographic case studies, reflecting on how students are thinking about mental health and wellbeing
- The challenge of developing a set of core outcome measures for student mental health and well-being, and creating a common language
- Consideration of how to measure the cost implications of poor student functioning and mental health
- Networking opportunity
- Development of potential research projects for the Plus-funding call.
World Mental Health Day 2018: SMaRteN's future retrospective
On world mental health day, we invited a panel of experts to imagine that it was 2030 and asked them to reflect on what student mental health will be like in a little over a decade's time. Our panel discussed their thoughts on student mental health in the future and the actions that the higher education sector need to take, as a whole, in order to improve student mental health. The panel was opened by Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Regius Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences and included:
For those of you who missed this event, catch up by watching the video below.
- Sherene Howard-Walker, Positive Peer
- Jo Levy, Head of Counselling, Outreach and Training
- Salman Shaheen, KCL Peer Supporter
- Rosie Tressler, CEO of Student Minds, the UK’s student mental health charity.
- Meg Zeenat Wamithi, Founder and Director of My Mind Matters Too
- Anne-Marie Henderson, Specialist Student Adviser for Vulnerable Students
For those of you who missed this event, catch up by watching the video below.