Call for examples of practice: student mental health interventions

The deadline to respond to this call has now passed.

TASO is inviting anyone working in the higher education sector to participate in our research about student mental health.

We are looking for examples of practice of interventions that:

• Aim to improve student mental health or provide support for those experiencing difficulties with their mental health.
• Are currently active or completed within the last five academic years.

Scope of the examples of practice

Some examples of projects this might include are set out below. These are intended to be illustrative examples, we would also welcome interventions not mentioned.

We are particularly interested in:

• Interventions that have not been evaluated, or are difficult to evaluate.
• Interventions that:
  
  – are settings-based (consider a “whole institution” approach),
  
  – consider places and spaces and how they affect users,
  
  – involve recreational activities, such as arts and music,
  
  – involve inter-system collaboration (with external services and organisations),
  
  – involve physical activities.
• Interventions delivered by:
  
  – Top Third universities
  
  – Metropolitan universities
  
  – Further Education (FE) colleges providing higher education courses

Background to the project

Funded by the Office for Students, TASO is leading a Consortium of five partners (What Works Wellbeing, Universities UK, King’s/SMaRteN, Student Minds and AMOSSHE) to help the higher education sector identify and make use of effective practice to support student mental health.

The project will deliver:

• A typology of mental health practices delivered in higher education (HE);
• A toolkit drawing together evidence of what works (and what does not), why, in what context and for whom in relation to student mental health;
• An evidence map, capturing current practice and evaluation;
• Evaluation guidance to help providers assess the impact of their mental health practices on longer-term outcomes such as retention, progression and attainment.

To find out more about the project, click here.

What will we do with examples of practice?

Some examples of practice will be used to inform our evidence map, helping the sector understand the effectiveness of student mental health interventions. A selection will be used to inform the digital repository of current mental health evidence which will be going live next year.

How to participate

Please submit your examples using the online web form by 5pm on Tuesday 31st January 2023. We will be in touch with the outcomes of the submissions by Tuesday 21st February 2023.

Please note, this call is a revised version of a call we put out October. The deadline for the call has been extended.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with the project’s Research Officer, Tatjana Damjanovic, tatjana.damjanovic@taso.org.uk.