The Challenge of Student Mental Well-Being: Reconnecting Students Services with the Academic Universe

Abstract

Current dialogues in the Higher Education sector highlight a range of tensions and uncertainties about university responses to student mental health that potentially contribute to a lack of clarity about the role of Student Services and institutions. These dialogues suggest that there is a need for theory which can seek to answer the following four central questions:

• 1. What role should universities and Student Services play in relation to student mental health and well-being?

• 2. What balance of proactive and reactive responses should universities adopt?

• 3. If institutions are to adopt a “whole university approach,” what should the role of Student Services be within this approach?

• 4. How closely positioned should Student Services be to core university missions and the academic universe?

This chapter explores these issues and proposes a conceptual model for Student Services’ responses to well-being and learning, arguing for the adoption of a research, practice, and teaching model to ensure better collaboration between academic and professional staff and closer integration of well-being and learning. Using practical examples and clinical evidence, it argues that well-being services should be based on developmental rather than deficiency-based models of practice and that well-being interventions should include support for academic learning.