The call for proposals is now open for Scotland’s Student Mental Health Conference, hosted by NUS Scotland's Think Positive project. The conference is taking place on Monday 11th May 2020 at Stirling Court Hotel and Think Positive are looking for your ideas, suggestions and submissions to build the Conference agenda. Proposals are invited for 50-minute workshops and 20-minute showreels, and the deadline for proposals for both is Wednesday 4th December 2019 at 10am. All submissions will be voted on by a student panel in December, with the agenda finalised and shared publicly in January.
sparqs has been working with Think Positive on an exciting new project focusing on mental health in the curriculum. So far, the project has involved three workshops, with some events in the planner for the future and we’re hoping that this work will feed into the conference!
All tickets for the conference are free, and sign-ups are initially open to institutions in Scotland who are currently taking part in the Student Mental Health Agreement project. Further tickets will be available to the wider public in January 2020.
The aims for the Conference are:
- A showcase of initiatives from within the sector
- Facilitate a discussion on the future of student mental health at a national level
- Opportunity to meet leaders within the sector
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See below for further information from Think Positive on submitting your proposals for workshops and showreels, and make sure you save the date for the conference!
Workshops
If you’d like to offer us a workshop, we want to showcase your talents, your expertise and your ingenuity and highlight the superb initiatives, campaigns, projects and activities taking place across Scotland and beyond.
We want to offer you a 50minute slot where you can offer an engaging, activity-based workshop on HE/FE mental health which explore one or more of the following themes:
- How can we highlight student mental health within education?
- What training should be offered, and to whom?
- How will we acknowledge and manage the expectations of future students?
- How do we best support vulnerable student groups?
- How do we mindfully approach suicide within the student population?
- How do we balance the medical model and the community model on our campuses?
- What could our future with tech look like?
- How do we offer student support as a package?
- How do we best promote support initiatives?
These themes are not exhaustive, but are the ones we feel are most relevant to the work Think Positive is doing.
We enthusiastically encourage contributions from Student Mental Health Agreement participants, early-career researchers and those working in student mental health.
Please submit an idea for a workshop here.
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Showreels
Have you launched a new initiative this year that you want to shout about? Have you instigated a new campaign?
(Institutions, have you created a fantastic component of your Student Mental Health Agreement you can’t wait to share?)
Think Positive wants to celebrate you!
We enthusiastically invite you to contribute to our Showreel sessions at Scotland’s Student Mental Health Conference. We want to offer you a 20minute slot where you can present your achievements, promote your initiative, and inspire our audience to improve student wellbeing support on a national level.
Please submit an idea for a showreel here.
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A wide representation of delegates is expected, including those leading on the Student Mental Health Agreement projects, the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland, leading mental health organisations and students. They are also keen to highlight this work through exhibition space and on their website; there are a variety of ways in which they could showcase your work.
Queries
Do you think you might have an idea but want to chat it over? Do you have any questions? Please get in touch with Jessica Smith, Student Health Project Co-0rdinator at Jessica.Smith@nus-scotland.org.uk; she would be delighted to discuss it further with you.
