Taking a 'Whole-University' Approach to Student Mental Health: The Contribution of Academic Libraries

Fuente: ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
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Main Authors: Brewster, Liz, Cox, Andrew M.
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Language:en
Published: 2023
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author Brewster, Liz
Cox, Andrew M.
author_facet Brewster, Liz
Cox, Andrew M.
Brewster, Liz
Cox, Andrew M.
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents Taking a 'Whole-University' Approach to Student Mental Health: The Contribution of Academic Libraries Brewster, Liz Cox, Andrew M. Foreign Countries College Students Mental Health Academic Libraries Library Role School Activities Educational Policy Educational Change Well Being Educational Practices Holistic Approach As concerns about student mental health have increased, policy aims have moved towards a 'whole-university' approach. The 2017 Universities UK #Stepchange framework made this principle a formal part of policy initiatives and legitimises it via its calls for action. The policy distributes responsibility for mental health support across the institution, highlighting four key reasons for intervention: "risk," "regulation," "success" and "policy." However, little is known about how this policy has been translated into practice and how activities for mental health have been adopted into the everyday work of higher education (HE) institutions. This article explores how one service common across all HE institutions, the academic library, has interpreted this call to contribute to student mental health. Using data from a national UK survey alongside policy analysis, this article investigates the strategic rationale and the practicalities of engaging with a whole-university approach. Findings show that local concerns often drove activity, which could be mapped to some aspects of a whole-university approach, but that the boundaries of professional expertise and resources were key considerations in accepting distributed responsibility. More broadly, mental health support was recontextualised to include wellbeing; this made it easier to adopt some aspects of a whole-university approach but focused on prevention rather than "risk" and "regulation." As a result, activities being conducted in practice did not align directly with the whole-university approach.
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ1380420
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2023
record_format eric
spellingShingle Taking a 'Whole-University' Approach to Student Mental Health: The Contribution of Academic Libraries
Brewster, Liz
Cox, Andrew M.
Foreign Countries
College Students
Mental Health
Academic Libraries
Library Role
School Activities
Educational Policy
Educational Change
Well Being
Educational Practices
Holistic Approach
Taking a 'Whole-University' Approach to Student Mental Health: The Contribution of Academic Libraries Brewster, Liz Cox, Andrew M. Foreign Countries College Students Mental Health Academic Libraries Library Role School Activities Educational Policy Educational Change Well Being Educational Practices Holistic Approach As concerns about student mental health have increased, policy aims have moved towards a 'whole-university' approach. The 2017 Universities UK #Stepchange framework made this principle a formal part of policy initiatives and legitimises it via its calls for action. The policy distributes responsibility for mental health support across the institution, highlighting four key reasons for intervention: "risk," "regulation," "success" and "policy." However, little is known about how this policy has been translated into practice and how activities for mental health have been adopted into the everyday work of higher education (HE) institutions. This article explores how one service common across all HE institutions, the academic library, has interpreted this call to contribute to student mental health. Using data from a national UK survey alongside policy analysis, this article investigates the strategic rationale and the practicalities of engaging with a whole-university approach. Findings show that local concerns often drove activity, which could be mapped to some aspects of a whole-university approach, but that the boundaries of professional expertise and resources were key considerations in accepting distributed responsibility. More broadly, mental health support was recontextualised to include wellbeing; this made it easier to adopt some aspects of a whole-university approach but focused on prevention rather than "risk" and "regulation." As a result, activities being conducted in practice did not align directly with the whole-university approach.
title Taking a 'Whole-University' Approach to Student Mental Health: The Contribution of Academic Libraries
topic Foreign Countries
College Students
Mental Health
Academic Libraries
Library Role
School Activities
Educational Policy
Educational Change
Well Being
Educational Practices
Holistic Approach
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1380420