News29 February 2024
Today, TASO publishes a report presenting the perspectives of those involved in the delivery and evaluation of student mental health interventions in the UK.
Drawing on 40 interviews, the report considers the underlying resources, assumptions and relationships that shape a mental health intervention in a higher education setting. The report draws parallels between the implementation and evaluation challenges, and suggests that a holistic approach might help remove the current barriers that students face when seeking mental health support.
This study informed the development of the Student Mental Health Evidence Hub, a free resource developed as part of the Student Mental Health Project.
Key findings
The study draws out four key themes: resourcing in student mental healthcare; medical and social models of mental health; networks of care; and managing data on student mental health.
- Resourcing needs in student mental healthcare. There are unprecedented pressures on student services caused by changes in the student body and student expectations. The pressures that practitioners face are complicated further by short-term funding structures that restrict the timely delivery of interventions and the possibility of evaluating and embedding them into wider systems.
- Co-existing medical and social models of mental health. There is no clear agreement on how it is best to refer to mental health difficulties. The debate about whether to use clinical or social models affects how interventions are designed and how they are promoted to students. The differences between clinical and social models also affect which outcomes are used to measure impact. There is, therefore, a need for guidance on evaluation methods and outcome measures that are appropriate to the context of higher education.
- Developing networks of care. Networks of care are key to upholding the structures that make a student mental health intervention work and these networks need to be nurtured. Findings suggest that the relationships between higher education providers and external organisations work best when they find commonality: common problems, common goals and a common language.
- Collecting, managing and sharing data on student mental health. Data management practices are central to each stage of an intervention’s development, from design and delivery to evaluation. The report highlights a concern that inaccurate demographic segmentation could be homogenising vastly different experiences and an awareness of cultural nuances is vital as different student groups experience mental health stigma differently, prompting disparities in disclosure rates.
A holistic approach and next steps
This study finds that implementation and evaluation of student mental health interventions have similar issues of patchy data management, siloed systems and limited resourcing. What helps practitioners navigate this thorny landscape is the development of communities of practice with academic staff, support staff and students as well as finding common ground with external partners. A holistic approach to mental health support would enable better implementation and evaluation of student mental health support.
Next steps and recommendations include:
- More research from a UK context is needed. In particular, more research is needed on interventions that do not name ‘mental health’ in their promotional materials and are delivered therefore by ‘stealth’.
- Building on existing evaluation of whole-university approaches: further evaluation guidance, rigorous evaluation and case studies could help higher education providers find ways to better evaluate their own practices.
- As a way of addressing the complexities of partnership working with NHS services, there seems to be a need for more examples and case studies of interventions that provide examples of effective data sharing agreements and practices. There is also a need for more research into delivering support for students in crisis or those living with severe mental illnesses.
Overall, the report recommends building on existing research in a variety of UK contexts to help strengthen the evidence base and improve practices in student mental health support across the sector.
Read: The current landscape of the delivery and evaluation of student mental health interventions [PDF]