Mental Wealth Day
Posted on 24th March, 2011
On Thursday 10th March, the city of Leeds was host to 'Mental Wealth Day' - a one day event that brought together students and staff from across the UK to share innovations and insights for promoting positive wellbeing on university campuses.
Over 25 universities were represented at the event, with delegates travelling from the furthest reaches of the UK, including St-Andrews, Brighton and Northern Ireland.
The event was an opportunity to share learnings from two years of the Mental Wealth Project - a grass-roots initiative that was launched to stimulate student-led entepreneurial approaches to tackling barriers to positive mental health & wellbeing. Since it's launch about 12 student 'mental wealth' groups have been launched across Great Britain, and in 2010 a national student committee was founded to steer the growth of this network.
The event featured posterboard displays from mental wealth groups, each of which demonstrated tried and tested methods for engaging students in the topic of mental health. Methods that were shared included the running of design competitions that invite creative students to develop artwork that challenges misperceptions, and the hosting of wellbeing fairs that bring together local stakeholders to create a day of fun and education.
Monastic residents from Plum Village, a Buddhist community in France, were also on hand to discuss the growing evidence for mindfulness as a tool for creating healthier, happier communities. In the afternoon they delivered a workshop which explored the advantages of being 'mindful' in everyday life, and how we can go about this.
The climax of the event was a seminar to look at how universities can work together to address the shared challenges. Nina Bhakri, the stakeholder manager for the £20m anti-discrimination campaign Time To Change, introduced the wider support available. A vision was then introduced for a national project that could facilitate the sharing of approaches, and support collaboration across the UK.
Ed Pinkney, founder of Mental Wealth UK, said, "it was a special day that captured the inspiring work of students around the UK, and demonstrated that students are increasingly taking a leading role on campuses and in the wider community. The success of the event highlighted that there is a shared vision for campuses, and that all those connected with wellbeing in higher education are prepared to work towards this vision together as one community."
Download the delegate pack from the day here
See a video from the day here: http://bit.ly/ic8dTF
See pictures here: http://bit.ly/ih5UIQ
See a report here: http://bit.ly/erOMaC
