Picture a campus where mental well-being is a top priority and where students walk in and out looking calm and confident. They are able to express their concerns to management, navigate social circles well and share a good equation with the management.
This is precisely how colleges should define success as an administration.
Creating a culture of wellness can enhance student lives. This can be done by integrating mental health support into their environment, fostering a vibrant, stigma-free atmosphere for academic and personal growth.
Emotional wellness is subjective, and everyone has their definitions. Wellness is a state of balance without compromising an individual’s routine or daily activities to strike it.
According to a study involving 362 college students from India, around 78% of the students reported that academic pressure and social stressors were significant contributors to their mental health issues.
Why Should Colleges Focus On Creating A Culture of Wellness?
In recent decades, the focus on mental health in schools and colleges has grown, and competition has intensified. While this is a sign of progress, it also sparks a debate on the need for educational systems to prioritize learning over results.
Students spend a significant amount of time in a classroom each weekday. This setting serves as a place to learn academics and as an opportunity to impart life skills that will benefit them beyond the school, such as self-care, community involvement, and cultivating a sense of connection and belonging.
Here are reasons why it is essential:
- Promotes Academic Progress: The environment reinforces a student’s academic journey. It is responsible for establishing focus and retaining information and also impacts motivation. Implementing mental health workshops helps students learn stress management techniques, mindfulness, and coping strategies to maintain focus and perform better academically.
- Breaks Stigmas: Mental health initiatives have several stereotypes. Introducing them in colleges helps reduce the formation of stigmas and educates students about the dire need for mental health on campus. Raising awareness in campus communities initiates conversations about mental health. Another option is integrating it into the curriculum to equip students with knowledge and resources.
65% of students felt supported and better equipped to manage stress when colleges provided mental health resources such as counseling and wellness programs.
What measures can colleges implement to incorporate emotional wellness practices?
Colleges must prioritize emotional well-being. This will create an environment that supports academic success and nurtures their students’ overall growth and well-being.
According to recent statistics, colleges that have introduced wellness programs have observed marked enhancements in student outcomes.
Mental health is not a campus-specific issue; it’s a societal concern that demands collective action and support. These improvements include a 20-30% rise in help-seeking behaviors and a noteworthy decrease in the stigma surrounding mental health issues.
Ways to incorporate emotional wellness practices:
- Adopting a practice of receiving and offering feedback: The first step to adopting wellness is prioritising mental health conversations. Establishing a student grievance redressal committee allows for accommodating student feedback and opinions. The next step involves addressing the issues in a group setting, considering various viewpoints, and devising an action plan to facilitate change.
- The lead-by-example approach: Be the change you want to see. Students should see adults modelling integrity, accountability, and positive communication, as these act as driving forces and set expectations.
- Ensuring the presence and access to mental health services: Prioritizing access to mental health services involves making them affordable, accessible, and destigmatized while advocating for more robust mental health care policies and integration into community settings.
- Creating a sense of belonging: As students, they wish to be involved in conversations and play a pivotal role in decision-making. Orient them on “Let’s Talk” programs where students can drop in for an informal one-on-one session with a counsellor—setting up a team with volunteers. The Healthy Minds Survey revealed that students with a strong sense of belonging were 10% more likely to persist in their studies.
Creating a campus that thrives on holistic emotional wellness helps promote inclusivity, boost confidence, and enhance students’ problem-solving potential. These are the building blocks of growth for a student’s life trajectory. Mental health wellness is more than just a buzzword.
Mental health services should be a fundamental human right, and college administrations must partner with wellness centres to make them easily accessible to students.
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