Strategy
Mental Health and Wellbeing Student Strategy
Colleges have an important role to play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their students, by developing approaches tailored to the particular needs of their pupils. All schools are under a statutory duty to promote the welfare of their students, which includes preventing impairment of young people’s health or development and taking action to enable all students to have the best outcomes.
The College recognises, that there will be an impact of COVID-19 on our students’ mental health and wellbeing for the considerable future, as we all learn to live and work with the virus and ongoing pandemic. We recognise that students are feeling anxious and uncertain during these unprecedented times, and we have sought to increase our offer of support focussing specifically on mental health and wellbeing challenges.
We are determined that positive mental health and wellbeing must be an integral part of the culture of New College Durham, and that managers at all levels will take a lead in making this happen.
Our priorities are:
- promoting the wide range of health and wellbeing services already available to staff and students within New College Durham
- promoting mental ill-health prevention and early help with mental wellbeing
- empowering students to recognise and support others who might need help
- direct people to knowledgeable, experienced specialist services and/or resources, as necessary
- a commitment to reducing the stigma that poor mental health carries
- promoting positive mental health and wellbeing, which have a positive impact on the general health of the student community
- improving the capability of teaching and support staff to tackle issues relating to stressors, rehabilitation and ‘signposting’ for their students
We will encourage student participation in the development and evaluation of health and wellbeing strategies, through ‘learner voice’, enabling New College Durham and students to work in partnership.