Cambridge releases new videos marking University Mental Health Day

The University of Cambridge is marking University Mental Health Day, with new campaign videos featuring voices from all 31 Colleges, encouraging students to reach out for support if they need it, and reassuring them that there is no stigma in reaching out.

In a first for Cambridge, all 31 Cambridge Colleges have taken part in a video campaign about student mental health, including 24 Heads of House, five Senior Tutors, and three health and wellbeing professionals.  

Key messages from the videos include: 

• Being well helps us to learn well ‒ so make time for your wellbeing each day and each week. It's a good thing in itself ‒ but also supports innovation, ideas, and working sustainably. 
• There is a variety of support available if you need it, both at the College level and from the University 
• Our goal is for every member of the Cambridge community to feel no stigma or shame about accessing support when they need it

The videos were created to respond to student feedback that having senior, recognisable figures supporting the Reach Out message would help them feel reassured about reaching out if they ever needed to.

13 Colleges have also created their own personalised video messages, where Heads of House reflect on their own journeys with mental health and wellbeing professionals share new resources or tips for the exam season ahead.  

Another video featuring just students also reinforces the messages around looking out for each other and taking the first step to reach out. We created this video based on student feedback that messages from their own peers about reaching out would also be effective. 

University Mental Health Day is a national campaign supported by Student Minds, aimed at getting the nation talking about student mental health and working together to make mental health a university-wide priority. 

The videos are also part of the existing Reach Out student mental health campaign that the University has been running for the last 18 months. The Reach Out campaign was developed to signpost students to a range of services available to those with mental health issues following a review of these services.

The primary objective of this second year of the Reach Out student mental health campaign is to communicate that Cambridge is a place where you can reach out for support when things get tough. Using recognisable faces such as Heads of House and wellbeing professionals from the Colleges, as well as students in a mix of settings and a range of backgrounds aims to be an authentic and reassuring message.

Published 14 March 2023
With thanks to:

_{All the Heads of House, Senior Tutors and wellbeing professionals for shaping the project and taking part.}

_{To all the students who took part.}

_{Our creative team: Lloyd Mann, SJ Ng, Ibrahim Rahman, Nick Saffell, Adam Page and Jonny Settle}

_{Words:
Amy Mollett}

_{Graphics:
Alison Fair}

_{The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License}