Transcript Resources and environmental stressors influencing the emotional

Student mental health: resources and
environmental stressors influencing the
emotional health of UCLAN students
Sue Hacking
Department of Nursing
West Midlands Mental Health Educators Network –
June 2007
Coventry University
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The survey aims
• To evidence perceptions of increasing need for
resources to meet the needs of students with mental
health difficulties reported by Arts staff.
Design
• Survey of students in the Department for Arts and
Fashion and another contrasting department to
assess the relative prevalence and level of mental
health needs and students’ perceptions of academic
pressure
• Survey of staff to assess perceptions of student
mental health and pressure on staff and students
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The questionnaire
measures
• Clinical Outcomes for Routine Evaluation (CORE system
group 1998 University of Leeds)
– 34 items grouped into four scales
•
•
•
•
subjective wellbeing
life functioning
risk/harm
problems/symptoms
– Clinically significant ‘caseness’.
• Social and Academic Inclusion Scale (Adaptation of Social
Inclusion Measure, Secker, Hacking 2007)
– 15 items grouped into 2 scales
• social involvement
• Coping with social pressure
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Responses
• Students’ questionnaire:
– 125 (25%) Arts Students (female 93%, male 7%)
– 133 (44%) Nursing students (female 80%, male 10%)
– Mostly White British (90%) and 21-25 years.
• Staff questionnaire:
– 14 Arts staff (28%)
– 22 Nursing staff (44%)
– Female 72%, male 27%, mostly White British and over
30years.
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Difficulties described by students
(last 2 years)
Difficulty
Arts
Nursing
All
4 (3%)
6 (5%)
10 (4%)
24 (20%)
36(28%)
60(24%)
Alcohol in quantity
6 (5%)
7 (5%)
13 (5%)
Illegal drugs
3 (2%)
1 (6%)
4 (2%)
Self harm
4 (3%)
3 (2%)
7 (3%)
Eating disorder
30 (25%)
44 (34%)
74 (29%)
Difficulty coping with ordinary life
18 (15%)
26 (20%)
44 (18%)
Low level problems
53 (44%)
65 (50%)
118 (47%)
Other distressing problems*
16 (13%)
26 (20%)
42 (17%)
Total number of students indicating
problems over the last 2 years
87 (72%) 108 (83%)
195(78%)
Hallucinatory experiences or thought
intrusions
Mood and anxiety disorders
5
Serious mental health issues within
the last few months and current long
term mental health problems
Serious mental
health issue
Last few months
Long term
problem
6
Arts
Nursing
all
21 (17%)
29 (22%)
50 (20%)
4 (3%)
9 (7%)
13 (5%)
Serious mental health issues
CORE scores (caseness)
Students scoring over clinical cut off point - CORE measure
of mental health
Nursing
Total Scale
Arts
Risk
Symptoms/problems
Life Function
Wellbeing
0%
7
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Which complaint is most likely to
fall into the significant range?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Low level
Eating disorder
Alcohol
Un-specified
Drugs
Other
Mood disorder
Hallucinatory
Coping with life
Self-harm
Selfharm
8
Coping Hallucin Mood
with life atory disorder
Other
Drugs
UnEating
Alcohol
specified
disorder
Low
level
Clinical Nursing students
2
10
3
12
4
1
4
2
11
10
Clinical Arts students
1
8
1
9
3
0
1
1
4
3
Non clinical - Nursing students
1
16
3
24
9
0
9
5
33
55
Non-clinical - Arts students
3
10
3
15
5
3
7
5
26
50
What contributes most to
significant scores - students
Students with clinically significant scores - what contributes to
problems?
Expectations of others
Personal management
Bad experiences
Dept. environment
Academic pressure
Other
Personality
0
Art students
9
5
10
15
20
Nursing students
25
Social and academic inclusion
• Students with clinically significant mental health
difficulties scored significantly lower on social and
academic inclusion (p<0.000)
– 22% less on the social involvement scale
– 18% less on coping with academic pressure
– 20% less overall
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Staff concerns about supporting students with
mental health problems
I feel worried in some cases about my teaching
style or department culture
We need to adopt a special approach for our
department
Some students are time-consuming
Our department processes are unhelpful in some
cases
Some of our students are particularly vulnerable to
mental health issues
I feel responsible to help some students cope
We recruit students with more problems
I have mostly no concerns
I don't want to make the problem worse for some by
offering support I can't sustain
I feel reluctant to step across boundaries
We need more support for mental health
I want somewhere effective to refer them to
Arts staff
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Nursing staff
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Conclusions
A significant number of students experience emotional
problems, minor and major.
– 70-80% reported some kind of problem over the last 2 years
– 26% reported a severe mental health problem
Students were willing to identify and disclose difficulties.
– 20% reported a serious mental health issue in the last 6
months and 5% reported a current long term problem
requiring management
– 13% presented with severe mental health problems
identified by validated instrument
– Students with serious mental health problems were less
included in the life of the university academically and
socially.
Staff concerns for an effective referral system may
reflect a lack of information and support
– Nursing staff were less concerned
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