Mental health. An oddly controversial topic that seems to have become a fascination within pop culture and media. Mental health has been taking dialogue by storm through advocacy and awareness of the intricacies that a person experiences. College campuses have developed into a hot bed of conversations and action regarding acceptance and providing resources to aid a person in need of support. During the Edinburgh University site visit, I was excited to hear the drive faculty was created to support their students with mental health related needs. I know that this class was catering to learning and autism disorders, but mental health will always be a topic of interest to me. Hearing a university talk very openly about their resources for students, expressing the pros and cons, was truly exciting. In comparison to UMass, Edinburgh University has demonstrated the intentions to support every student. I personally do not feel as if this intention is as strong at UMass. CCPHS is a wonderful resource, but is not enough to cater to the entire student body.
With 25% of the people disclosing their disabilities claim that they have a mental health related disability. Resources have been constructed to start aiding students in their academics. One way that they discussed that the Disability Services could improve upon is their staff training. I had the opportunity to ask if the University took part in the Scottish Mental Health and First Aid training. The issues with tracking how many people have participated is the fact that it is through a third party and commissioned trainings. The university has also decided to create an entry level training course for staff and training on individual disorders. With such a large campus, having more staff trained at the basic level will help to fast track students to where they need to be.
In contrast, QMU has said that 1 in 4 of their staff is trained in the Scottish Mental Health and First Aid. Also, UMass has never directly taken part in the American Youth Mental Health and First Aid. Resident Assistants, for the very first time, have the opportunity to add an additional training session to be certified. Until next Wednesday, there are no students affiliated with UMass staff, especially in a residential setting, certified. Hopefully, this training will be beneficial to the UMass residential student body and provide more support.
I think that is is a great idea the Edinburgh university is training their staff when they are hired because it can spark interest and highlight how important it is for the staff to learn more and support their students. I hope tat they begin to keep track of the extra trainings because if staff see poor statistics on training they may feel more compelled to take part in additional trainings. Hopefully UMass creates a better program to encourage their staff to become more educated so that students feel as supported as possible in a stressful time.
I was also really glad to hear about the additional trainings being offered to staff regarding mental health. Since professors host office hours, they are likely to be a first point of contact with students in their classes. If a student is comfortable talking to the professor about the class then there might be a day when the student shares their distress and since the professor is likely the first person to hear this information, they should know what to do and who to direct the student to for support. I am glad to hear that RA’s at UMass are now having the opportunity to be certified in Mental Health and First Aid because freshman are more likely to see their RA than upperclassmen are and this training could help support so many students as they adjust to university. I hope that one day this training will be required because of the impact it can have and especially because it may influence the people who genuinely don’t care about the wellbeing of others to not apply to be an RA.