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Sunmentors

Universities worldwide struggle with rising student mental health issues, including depression and anxiety. Students grappling with these challenges often feel unsupported and disadvantaged, creating an urgent need for better integration and support systems. Teaching staff, often the first point of contact, lack the skills and resources to effectively identify and assist struggling students. Time constraints and limited training further hinder their ability to offer meaningful help. This project proposes training programs for staff on student mental health, with a focus on identifying at-risk students, offering support, and making appropriate referrals. It also emphasizes the specific needs of marginalized student groups. By investing in training and building a holistic institutional strategy, universities can create a more inclusive learning environment that effectively supports all students, regardless of their mental health status. Despite facing a critical shortage of adequate mental health support, further worsened by the pandemic, universities fail to effectively aid struggling students. This deficit is especially concerning for students with severe mental illness who require specialized understanding. Adding to the issue, overburdened and untrained staff grapple with stigma, limited resources, and their own mental health needs, hindering their ability to offer meaningful support. Furthermore, universities rely on reactive, individual services that neglect the deeper systemic issues impacting student well-being. The consequences of poor mental health extend far beyond individual struggles, affecting academic performance, future prospects, and society as a whole. To address this crisis, universities must prioritize a holistic approach. This includes investing in creating supportive and inclusive environments, providing comprehensive staff training on mental health support, and actively combating stigma while expanding accessible resources. By taking these crucial steps, universities can not only improve student well-being but also foster a thriving academic community that benefits everyone.

Impact

SUNMENTORS isn’t just workshops and modules – it’s a collaborative effort to build comprehensive, university-wide strategies for inclusive student mental health. Partner universities will develop their own strategies while sharing tools and resources across Europe. Freely accessible materials like a handbook, e-learning platform, and policy paper will raise public awareness and impact wider communities, including policymakers and non-profit organizations. Collaborations like the one with Student Minds in the UK demonstrate the project’s potential for lasting change through training and research. In short, SUNMENTORS aims to go beyond individual efforts and foster systemic change, creating a future where all students have access to the mental health support they need to thrive in higher education.

Our Role

Innovation Hive is a valuable addition and critical for the implementation of the project. They are responsible to develop the e-learning platform which will be the tool to further disseminate and make the uploaded material accessible to the broader audience. Moreover, will be taking over the dissemination and exploitation strategy that will allow the project and it’s results to better reach target groups. Lastly, Innovation hive will be contrubuting to all the activities and and the overall implementation of it.

Sunmentors

Project Name: Sunmentors: Support for University Student Mental Health - Training for Teaching Staff

Project ID: 2023-1-DE01-KA220-HED-000161199

Start Date: 31/12/2023

End Date: 30/12/2025

Coordinator:

🇩🇪 TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DORTMUND

Partners:

🇮🇹 CIAPE

🇮🇹 INNOVATION HIVE

🇬🇧 UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE

🇮🇹 PANEPISTIMIO PATRON

🇧🇪 UC LEUVEN

Project's Social:

Pending

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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
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