Were you at one of my presentations to 1st Year Criminology students on Mental Health and Self-care? Did you want the slides and links? Included in post.
This week I had my first experience of delivering the same lecture at the Bedford Park campus and then the new City Campus!
It was also my first chance to see the City Campus and I liked what I saw. The teaching spaces are nice to work in, and overall, it feels roomy with lots of natural light.
A big thanks to Jeremy and Haidee who gave me quick tours of the spaces.
The lecture that I was delivering was to Criminology students and focused on my standard pet topics: mental health and self-care.
I deliver versions of this lecture commonly nowadays. In fact, I’ve been posting many of my slide decks here on the blog.
An idea I emphasised in this presentation was thinking about university as a gymnasium of the mind. We rock up regularly, push our minds to acquire new knowledge, skills and capacities and do so with the goal of building mental fitness.
Mental health can be thought of, in this context, as how healthy the mind is.
We explored different domains of mental health and then the self-care activities that contribute to good mental health.
My invitation to students was to consider whether an investment in their mental health might contribute to a better university experience.
Thanks to both classes for your attention and welcoming me into your learning spaces.
Slides for the presentation can be found here.
Key support links included in the presentation are as follows:
- my uni profile
- mental health first aid training
- learn about your character strengths
- quick distress measure
- more comprehensive mental illness screener
- a more holistic measure of your mental health, capturing both distress and wellbeing components
- a program to tackle procrastination
- a program to learn how to develop a mental health and resilience plan
- the ‘big five’ in terms of mentally healthy habits
- Health, Counselling and Disability Services
- Wellbeing Ambassador Program
- An introduction to the Student Health and Wellbeing Blog