‘Support, activities and conversation need to happen all year round’

World Mental Health Day is a great opportunity for us to engage students and staff at UWE Bristol on a hugely important subject.

We expect hundreds of people will come together to take part in activities across our campuses, which range from healthy eating events to gardening workshops and opportunities to get active.

It’s been fantastic to see the response from students. Last week, a healthy ‘feast night’ at our Student Union building was attended by more than 200 people. UWE Bristol’s Student Union representatives will this week be speaking with fellow students about mental health and highlighting simple, everyday ways for them to manage this.

Our sports teams will be wearing green World Mental Health Day shoelaces to celebrate the day and anyone visiting our campuses will be able to look out for the hundreds of special wellbeing baubles that have been hung across our sites filled with positive affirmations and treats.

We’re doing it because mental health matters to us.

UWE provides a huge range of health and wellbeing activities and support at the University because we know our students want them. As an organisation with around 30,000 students and 4,000 employees, we know that we can play an important role in supporting students’ and colleagues’ mental health and wellbeing. And we can work with our many partners and other organisations to help build and embed good mental health practice across the city.

This is why earlier this year we set out a strategy for Mental Wealth which covered aspects ranging from the information and support we provide, to the environment and culture we create for everyone living, studying and working here.

Highlighting and celebrating mental health and wellbeing on October 10 is important to get people talking about it, but the support, activities and conversation need to happen all year round.

Everyone has a role in putting mental health first. At the heart of our approach is the recognition that there are things we can all do to help protect and improve our own and each other’s mental health and wellbeing.

We run a year-round programme at UWE called Feel Good,which is based around four key areas, all of which have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing: eating well, getting active, relaxing and trying out new things.

Whether it’s taking a walk with friends around campus or joining one of the many clubs and societies at UWE, there are plenty of opportunities to take advantage of. Every year we run a Feel Good February programme of activities, because we know this can be a particularly ‘down’ time for people. This year we organised more than 200 events, attracting 10,000 students. We expect a similar number of events for 2019 and hope even more students will attend.

We are also proud to be sponsoring the first ever Wild & Well festival that is coming to Bristol across October 21-22, offering a whole range of feel-good activities and talks for anyone in the city to come and enjoy.

We have had positive feedback from students about the opportunities on offer. It highlights that students and young people are aware of about the importance of mental health and are open to trying new things to help to manage this.

UWE is a community, and we always achieve more when we work together. By working as a team to break down the stigma of talking about mental health, we can help everyone in our community to feel seen, to feel heard, and to know that the first step towards feeling better is to talk.

Jo Midgley is pro vice-chancellor at UWE Bristol, with a focus on student experience