By Sakib Moghal
Almost 80% of students have suffered from mental health difficulties in the past year. 33% of students have suffered from suicidal thoughts in the past year. 1 in 4 students — right now — are suffering from some form of mental health problem.
It is against this backdrop that a friend and I decided to found the Open Mind Network, a mental health and wellbeing society at the University of Manchester, dedicated to addressing this problem. We have two simple goals:
- Support those dealing with mental health issues
- Educate all students on how to keep a healthy, happy mind
We try to do this by, simply, providing peer-to-peer support. We’re building a community of students who are passionate about, sensitive to, and supportive of mental health.
We’re 6 months old, and I’m stunned by how much we’ve grown. As a team of 9 students, we have accumulated 283 Medium followers, 682 Facebook likes, 145 Instagram followers, 301 Newsletter subscribers. We’ve held 8 events (ranging from expert panel discussions on depression to ‘Positivitea’ socials for students with mental health issues) that have attracted hundreds of students, raised £300 for a Manchester Mind, and have garnered the support of a number of mental health experts and organisations. Some students have broken into tears at our events. Some — including myself — have been deeply moved. Many have thanked us for our work, stating that we’re meeting a desperate need. This is all deeply humbling.
But, I can’t help but feel that what we’re doing isn’t nearly enough. Mental health problems among students are on the rise — incidences are the highest they’ve ever been since 2007. At our own University, in a meeting we had with an executive responsible for mental health initiatives, we were told that mental health was “top of the agenda”. And yet, waiting times for counselling appointments are 1 month. When I tell friends about the Open Mind Network, I’m stunned by how frequently I hear “I could use that kind of help”, or “I know a friend who could use that”. And whilst it’s great that we’re able to support them, it saddens me that they need this support — and it wasn’t there — to begin with.
We’re working on doing more. We’re in the process of setting up a student buddy scheme and our own pro-bono counselling service — thanks to a network of generous mental health professionals (if you’d like to get involved, please drop me a line). We’re going to keep running events — socials for those dealing with mental health issues, expert panel discussions to educate students, workshops to build mental well-being, and awareness campaigns to normalise discussions about mental health. We’re just a bunch of students who do this in our spare time, and we know our impact is limited. But we’ll keep going.
I write this in the hope that it will raise awareness. If you’re the friend, parent or loved one of a student, please — call them, and ask them how they’re really doing. If you’re a student yourself, please — look after yourself, focus on your wellbeing, and get in touch with us if you’re really struggling. If you’re a student in Manchester, come to one of our events and join our community.
I’m pissed off with the prevalence of poor mental health among my fellow students, and I don’t intend to stop trying to support them. I hope that, in reading this, you can join me — in word or deed — in this work.
As a thank-you for reading, here’s a picture of the Nightline Bear holding up our Instagram card during our World Mental Health Day event.
