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The Australian College of Applied Psychology (ACAP) together with James Cook University, are hosting a series of webinars discussing mental health in higher education.
Taking place across 2021-2022, the Australasian Mental Health and Higher Education Collaboration will explore ‘the tapestry of mental health in higher education across four webinars.
Each webinar will focus on a different experience of mental health: Academic, Student, Professional and Technical Staff, and Research.
ACAP’s Professor Margaret Anne Carter facilitated the first webinar, which took place on 7 July and focused on academic staff’s mental health and wellness experiences
“It was so great to see that over 200 people registered for this first webinar. The three presenters shared valuable insights into just some of the many challenges being faced by academic staff.
“Research has shown that supporting the mental health and wellness of staff and students in higher education settings is a significant contributor to their performance, success and satisfaction. So, this just goes to show how important these topics are,” Margaret said.
Dr Rachael Field, Professor of Law, Bond University discussed the importance of supporting the wellbeing of tertiary students and how this affects their learning success, employability, and future career success. She also discussed academic wellbeing and the issues relating to the quality of working life for academics.
Professor Stephen Naylor, Chair, Academic Board, James Cook University discussed the need to establish a range of support mechanisms to assist students through the difficult stages of their tertiary journey.
Vivienne Browne, Principal Adviser, Government Relations and Policy, Orygen discussed Orygen’s Australian Mental Health Framework which was launched in 2020. The Framework applies a whole-of-university, settings-based approach to creating and supporting learning environments conducive to good mental health and wellbeing.
The second webinar, taking place on 8 September, will focus on the student experience, featuring a panel of three guest speakers.
The series of webinars are organised by the AMHHEC which was established in 2017 in response to the increasing need for action in the area of mental health and wellness in the higher education sector.
In 2020, the AMHHEC group expanded its reach, forming a collaboration between James Cook University and ACAP.