Hi everybody – Happy New Year! Apologies up-front for the frightening photo and unpredictable hair.

I’m back at the helm of the Student Health and Well-being Blog and preparing for a big year.

I’m going to jump straight in and let you know what we’ve got planned for this year, cause it is a lot. I am going to be a busy, busy boy.

 

Student Health and Well-being Blog

I’ve been writing this blog since July 2017. Much of it has been focused on mental well-being.

In 2018, we are going to expand the content of this blog to address other aspects of well-being, such as healthy living (diet, sleep, physical activity) and coping with chronic illness or disability.

We’ll be covering a lot of stuff:

• reviews of apps, websites and programs designed to improve your health and well-being
• fact sheets and worksheets for addressing specific health and well-being issues
• education about health and well-being
• notification of health and well-being related events within the university and out in the community
• letting you know about health and well-being services available to you here at the university, but also in the community
• Job, mentoring, volunteering or research participation opportunities
• Introduction to people in the university doing interesting health and well-being work

In addition, we’ll be providing more news from Health, Counselling and Disability Services (HCDS) such as Flu jab dates, and cut-off times for disability related accommodations.

Essentially we want this blog to be the primary source for all student focused health and well-being related news in the University.

As part of this, we hope to make some technical additions to the blog that allow you to “subscribe” and get new posts via email. Stay tuned.

OASIS website

Whilst OASIS itself has become a popular and community minded place on campus for students to meet others, chill out, and get access to support, the OASIS website is tired and old.

We are in the process of building an entirely new OASIS website, which will let you know about events OASIS are running, book rooms at OASIS, find supports and interact with other students online.

As part of the new website, I’ll be writing a blog on mental fitness. Don’t worry if that term doesn’t mean much to you at this stage, because I will be writing a lot about mental fitness and how to build it in the coming months. Put simply, mental fitness is having your brain work at its full capacity, which, as a student is hugely important. Mental fitness also enables you to better cope with the inevitable challenges of life.

Self-help courses/workbooks

Whilst blog posts are good for presenting basic information, skills and ideas, sometimes when building new skills, you need something more in-depth. To help you build skills specific to your study, we’ll be creating some self-help workbooks on pertinent topics.

The first of these on tackling procrastination, I am working on right now, and hoping to launch before orientation week in February. The workbook helps you understand the factors that drive procrastination (something we all struggle with in some way) and techniques for modifying these factors.

The workbooks will be accessible via Health, Counselling and Disability Services, and you will be able to use them as digital documents (e.g. editable pdf) or print them out and use them like a traditional journal/workbook.

Campaigns

We know from reports like Under the Radar, that many university students struggle with mental health issues. We want to make sure that students at Flinders who are struggling know where to turn for help.

With this in mind, we have two simple campaigns planned for this year. The first – “Digital resources for your mental health” is a one-page document outlining the different online resources you can use if you need support. You can pick up a copy at HCDS (on the noticeboard), or download here: Digital resources for your mental health. Remember to share with a friend if you think they are struggling.

The second campaign – “Feeling Stressed” is a poster which will go up around the university inviting students to visit the following site if they are feeling a bit overwhelmed. The site offers simple starting points for addressing stress, but also where to go if those strategies aren’t effective.

Get involved

Sitting in an office and writing content, whilst enjoyable, can get a little lonely.

If you’d like to:

• get me to write about a particular topic
• contribute your own article to the blog or OASIS website
• find out how you can get involved in OASIS events
• learn more about what health and well-being resources are available to you, OR
• just leave some feedback (positive or negative) about something I have written

please contact me via email (gareth.furber@flinders.edu.au), Skype (eMental Health Project Officer Gareth), or Twitter (@Dr_Furber)

 

Lets make 2018 a ripper.