The power of human connection through peer support

This Thursday 12 March is University Mental Health Day, when we focus on the specific issues facing students and how they impact wellbeing. This year the theme for the day is human connection, which is key to maintaining good mental health.

Many students report social isolation, transitioning to adulthood, mental health stigma and bullying amongst the main challenges they face, in addition to anxieties felt from academic pressure.

Young adults show lower rates of help-seeking and say a lack of confidence and worries of being judged as reasons behind their reluctance to seek help for mental health problems when they arise.

UOK? a peer-led programme, funded by Pinterest and rolled out by the Mental Health Foundation, works directly with 16-25 year old students in colleges and universities to empower them in managing their own wellbeing and in supporting other students who may be struggling with their mental health.

Human connection, through peer support, is the driver for equipping students with the knowledge and confidence to support themselves, and their fellow students.  This impact causes a ripple effect across the whole student community such as at Manchester Metropolitan University, who have run the UOK? programme and are taking wellbeing into their own hands.

Ian Harvey, who works in the Student Welfare team, explains how Peer Guides have extended the breadth of their support:

“We’ve used the UOK? model as a basis and then we’ve been allowed to digress and use it to benefit the needs of our students. What we do here is proper co-creation work. We talk about well-being walks, healthy meals and we’re looking at having mental health ambassadors within sports clubs and societies.”

One of their Peer Guides is Lily Skourides, a PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University shared the impact the initiative has had on her and in encouraging people to open up about mental health.

“You can actually talk to someone who is just like you and might have been through a similar experience and it kind of takes away some of that daunting element of figuring out how to navigate university.

“You don’t even need to know a person’s name and you don’t even need to talk to them for more than 30 seconds just to sort of give them that reassurance that you know, you are where you’re supposed to be.

“I do believe that lived experience is the best experience a lot of the time, but there’s people on the ground like us in other universities, other staff members that work with us who care about it too. Then there’s the Mental Health Foundation who care about it too.

“So just having someone backing you up in your corner is really helpful. I love watching other people develop because it makes me feel like we’re doing it together.

“It kind of affirms to me that other people have got the same ideas that I’ve got, you’ve got similar motivations to me, people I work with and even the people that I might work with in the future.

“It comes back to the idea that there are 40,000 people here, but we’re all united by something and that feels really nice.”

Lily and her fellow Peer Guides and the Student Welfare team at MMU shared how UOK? works for them in this video to mark University Mental Health Day:

Peer support breaks down barriers, creates a sense of community, increases our understanding of mental health, and develops our ability to maintain good mental health and prevent poor mental health. Human connection is central to peer support. Building connections and friendships supports us through challenges and is a cause for celebration when things are going well. Never is this more needed, than when we face possible isolation from moving, literally, out of our comfort zone.

We know that 75% of mental health problems start before the age of 24 and that the move out of statutory and further education into higher education can have a detrimental effect on student mental health.

Mental health problems at university are increasing while mental health services on campus are reportedly oversubscribed, indicating a strong case for preventing difficulties before they arise and the need for early intervention for students who experience mental health difficulties while at university.

We believe that everyone needs a basic level of knowledge and skill around their own mental health. By teaching every student about mental health, we hope that they will be better equipped to meet the challenges they and their friends will encounter in life.

UOK? has worked with 23 universities and colleges this year, and has supported over 3,600 students to date.

Through our engagement with students via UOK? We know that accessible and consistent ‘whole person’ mental health support and social connection are among the top needs identified by students.  As are anti-stigma and mental health literacy, physical and emotional safe places, and a ‘go-to’ person for their wellbeing.

Times are arguably the hardest they have ever been for our young people. In the age of AI, social media and technological advances, make this world an ever-shrinking place and can cause escalation of poor mental health, the value placed on face-to-face interaction and human connection is vitally important in reminding us that – people do care, and that we, and our mental health, matter.

By Tim Street, Project Manager for UOK? at the Mental Health Foundation

For more information about UOK? visit: mentalhealth.org.uk/UOK

University Mental Health Day is run by Student Minds and UMHAN (University Mental Health Advisers Network)