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The University of Southampton
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

University and SUSU sign Time To Change pledge

Published: 12 May 2014

University Provost Adam Wheeler and Student Union Vice-President for Welfare Beckie Thomas have signed up in partnership to the Time To Change pledge. This was the centrepiece of SUSU's first Mental Wellbeing Conference on 10 May.

Photo by Jack Hamilton
Signing in partnership

Time To Change is a national campaign to end mental health discrimination, through better information and resources both for people with a mental health condition, and their friends and colleagues.

One in four people in the UK are affected by some form of mental illness. The potential costs - to industry as well as to individuals and their family and friends - are significant.

Activities pledged across the two organisation include:

  • Awareness campaigns for students, and for staff in both formal and informal roles
  • Encouragement to engage in conversations about mental health
  • Relevant training for senior management, particularly within the SLDP programme
  • Better publicity for services and resources, both on and off campus
  • Campus roadshows through 2014-15
  • Wellbeing showcase day, 4 November
Photo by Jack Hamilton
We've done it!

Pictured alongside Adam and Beckie, and signing on behalf of Time to Change is Angela Etherington, South-east regional co-ordinator. Angela also spoke in a personal capacity as a service user, as did several other guests.

Time To Change is  led jointly by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.

The same event marked the launch of Look After Your Mate. Introduced by Biomedical Sciences student Vicky Gall, the campaign aims to give more students (and indeed the wider University community) the knowledge, confidence and skills they need to support their friends. Vicky worked with the national charity Student Minds to develop support material, and will be joining the organisation when she graduates this summer.

Mindfulness in the national news

Mindfulness is a way of developing attention that is sustained, purposeful, in the moment, and non-judgmental.

On 7 May, an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) was launched to study the benefits of bringing this into public policy.

The APPG is supported by The Mindfulness Initiative,  a joint project between Oxford, Exeter and Bangor Universities,.

The Mindfulness Initiative advocates a better understanding of mindfulness as a low cost intervention, and assesses its potential in a range of public services.

Mindfulness initiatives have been launched in US universites including Syracuse and Berkeley's Law School.

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