We Care Workshop

Main idea

This training helps students and all staff (lecturers, maintenance staff, faculty members...) to create a caring community. Participants are trained to recognise mental problems, to engage in difficult conversations and to refer warmly to professional help where necessary. This way, AUAS aims to increase mental health literacy (awareness) among students and staff.

Outline

The We Care Workshop is a training about prevention and early detection of emotional problems. The trainings is created by SIHO (Support Center for Inclusive Higher Education) and KU Leuven on behalf of the Flemish government. SIHO focuses on inclusive higher education and the mental well-being of students. AUAS and more specifically Stuvo (Office of Student Services) has further implemented this training.

This workshop helps students and all staff (lecturers, maintenance staff, faculty members…) to create a caring community in which student learn to recognise and discuss signs of emotional problems. The training consists of six modules:

• facts and figures about students’ mental health
• recognizing signs of emotional issues
• discussing emotional problems
• referring to professional help
• self-care
• suicidality

Goals

The We Care workshop aims to support student and staff on:

• increasing health literacy;
• recognizing mental health issues;
• expressing concerns;
• discussing emotional problems;
• and referring the student to help.

Obstacles targetted:

• Health problems

Inspiration and evidence

The Public Mental Health Approach informed the design of this workshop. There are many students with emotional issues, and the majority of these are mild. This means that not everyone needs treatment, so the focus should be on prevention and early detection. This is achieved by increasing knowledge about mental health.

Success criteria

• The workshop is evidence-based.
• The workshop targets students and staff (lecturers, maintenance staff, faculty members…)
• The workshop consist of six modules that can be used flexibly.
• There’s a PowerPoint presentation, from which various slides can be used in classes.
• Talking about emotional issues in the workshop makes the step to ask for help smaller.
• Participants find out where they can get help regarding mental health.
• The workshop creates awareness about mental health, emotional problems and suicidality.
• The training is very comprehensive and interactive. It includes not only theory but also discusses concrete exercises.
• The workshop is tailored on the needs of the participants. More time is spent on relevant situations or videos with different target groups.
• The workshop is being implemented across all higher education institutions in Flanders.

Points of attention

• It is a challenge to ensure that nothing is left unaddressed.
• By breaking the taboo, you hear many intense stories. Time needs to be allocated for this, and you must provide support. You cannot just leave after the workshop and leave vulnerable people behind.
• The workshop mainly attracts engaged students, for example, from the social work program or students from the student council. To attract a broader group of students, this training should be integrated into the curriculum.

Effectiveness

The impact of the workshop has also been evaluated at the Flemish level. Participants have indicated that they had not only learned a lot about mental wellbeing, but that they had also felt more confident to handle difficult conversations.

Do you feel you can effectively provide the support that students require?

We strongly agree.

Would you recommend this to other institutions?

strongly agree

Evaluation

The workshop is evaluated throughout the session. Various videos are shown, for example, a conversation between a lecturer and a student about the student’s mental health. Participants are asked what went well and what did not, and what they would do differently. This way the opinion of participants is considered, which enriches the training.

Communication

Communication towards staff:

• Newsletters
• Employee page on the general communication platform of AUAS
• Presentations
• Word-of-mouth advertising
• Mentioned by the professionalization service (HR)
• Mentioned on MoodSpace.be

Communication towards students:

• Available online through the Stuvo calendar
• Flyers
• Social media
• General communication platform
• Mentioned on MoodSpace.be

Timing

• The workshop is organized twice per academic year, once in the spring and once in the fall, but there can be additional sessions if neccessary.
• Employees often attend these sessions during team days.
• For students, the sessions usually take place in the evenings.

Resources

• Budget
• Staff
• Classrooms
• Communicaton material

Extra information

• Self-help on MoodSpace

Transferability

We think it is easily transferable to other contexts or groups.

Universal Design

The workshop is developed based on the principles of Universal Design. The training includes interactive videos, relevant TED talks and exercises to teach very concrete conversation skills. It can take place both online and in person. There is an English and Dutch version available and there are subtitles available.