LEEDS STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH REPORT

Leeds University Union is mandated by its strategy and policy, set in consultation with students, to examine this prominent issue of student mental health. One of LUU’s three ‘impacts’ is to make sure students are ‘happy, feeling good, and having fun’, including the mission ‘empowering positive health and wellbeing’. This involves delivering a full programme of wellbeing activity and campaigning to close to gaps in support provision. Three quarters of mood, anxiety, psychotic, personality, eating, or substance misuse disorders are established by age 24, so placing wellbeing as a priority during such an important formative period in a young person’s life is at the top of our agenda.

Mental health is arguably one of the most prominent emerging issues facing modern society. Steadily losing its stigma through open conversation and campaigns such as Time To Change (supported by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness), it now often at the very top of agendas in all professional sectors. A huge amount of information and work on mental health exists, particularly student mental health: The Office for Students reports that the number of undergraduate University students reporting mental health concerns has more than doubled in the last year, with these students less likely to complete their degree, attain a high classification, or progress without issue onto professional career paths.

Read the full report here by Amy Wells, a Leeds University student.