Students’ mental health and recovery

We are tired of this sh*t! — SUS calls for students’ right to recovery

Take part in our advocacy work to strengthen students' mental health and ensure a study environment with balance, recovery and less stress.

A good study environment and health among students are a prerequisite for good learning. However, consistent studies show that students continue to feel significantly worse than working adults of the same age. One of the main problems is the opportunities for recovery, something students are systematically denied.

Here we highlight the issues surrounding recovery and present the work we are doing to create a more sustainable study time and education. Our ambition is to influence, inform and contribute to a future where student health is taken very seriously.

SUS meets experts and students

To shed light on these topics from multiple perspectives, we have spoken with both experts and students. In the interviews, they share knowledge, experiences and concrete advice that can contribute to increased understanding and support in everyday student life.

• SUS meets the Student Health Services

  Student Health Services is a resource for students that offers support and guidance regarding both mental and physical health. The activities work preventively and exist to help students feel good and manage the demands of their studies.

  SUS met Ingemar Dahlgren, Head of Student Health Services, to discuss student stress, anxiety and recovery. Read the interview below.

  What types of mental health problems do you most often encounter among students?
  Stress, worry, depression, anxiety.

  What do you see as the biggest reasons for lack of recovery among students?
  It varies. What is highlighted is the stress that you have about completing your studies and that you need to study more and more. You don't take breaks. The demands from yourself and from the teaching make you feel that you can't take breaks. We work on this quite a lot in the conversations with students, the importance of taking breaks, even though it feels like you have to study more. Especially before exams. You forget and think that it will work better if you stay up two nights in a row. It doesn't.
  
  Then there is the time between the final exam of a course and the start of a new course. Some people experience that stress. Especially if you fail an exam and need to redo it and then have to study twice, which makes it difficult to recover.

  And then we have those who work, they work a lot. That is also a group of students we meet. And they can have a hard time accepting that it (the stress) is due to studying and working. If you also have children and support requirements, it is an extra burden. Having to pick up and drop off children and make it work.

  How does the pace and structure of studies (e.g. exam on Sunday, new course on Monday, no paid study breaks) affect students' well-being?
  We do not see that this is something students bring up specifically or exclusively. We ask more about their situation. We know that some institutions schedule courses this way and I can imagine that students who study at several departments experience it more. The institutions at SU schedule their own courses and do not see the whole picture.

  The reasons are individual and are several for lack of recovery.

  We haven't seen anything in particular being said in relation to paid leave, but the way we work and think, is that students need to take breaks. And during the summer, for example, you have to work. So it's clear that we see a stress factor there.

  Taking a walk is important. A half-hour walk is enough. Many people think that they have to study that half hour, but it's important to get the rest.

  If you get a longer, continuous rest, it's obviously better.

  What role do financial stress and the need to work alongside studies play?
  It is not an unusual combination when we meet students and try to understand what their situation is like. It is a common combination that they work on weekends, for example.

  Many student who come to us work at the same time. We don't meet that many students, if you think about the total number of students, but of those we meet, many are working. We don't keep statistics on these issues, but I notice that employees highlight that many people work alongside their studies. We ask why they have to work so much during the semesters and it looks different, whether you have a family or not, live at home or not. But they want more money to be able to live a good life.

  What do you think is the biggest challenge for your work with students' mental health and recovery today?
  We do the best we can. We don't meet all students. We also know that we can't meet all students who want to meet us. Especially in the form of individual conversations (groups are no problem). I would say that there is a lack of resources, unfortunately.

  “It's not just the working methods, but we are quite few in relation to how many students there are, and since we see that bad mental health is increasing among younger people in society, the pressure on us is obviously increasing as well.

  We don't have statistics on how many we can't accept, we don't have the resources for that, but we are working to accept as many as possible.

  If you had more resources – what actions would you take and prioritize?

  • Receive more individual conversations. It is number one so that we can meet more students.

  • More dialogue with teaching staff. Working with study environment issues in study situations - the teacher-student meeting. Sometimes unnecessary stress arises because teachers do not understand, do not have time or do not listen. They are not used to meeting students who are stressed, or have disabilities and ill health in general. You are not used to that group of students and may treat them in an inappropriate way. We hear this from students who experience a certain level of vulnerability. So I would like to work more with teachers.

  • We work with 10 universities. We would like to be more visible on site at the universities, which we don't have time for. And that's something universities often bring up and ask if we can come there and do something with them, and it's quite difficult to achieve.

  If you had to give concrete suggestions to improve students' recovery - what would it be?

  • Review the scheduling in the departments and become aware that it is good to have breaks between one course and another. Going from exam directly to the next lecture is not optimal, exam on Sunday evening and starting the next course Monday morning.

  • Knowledge and absorbing knowledge. The brain is tired after two hours of studying. Not more alert after three hours. Learning when your brain works best for you. Everyone is different. Some study great in the evenings and nights, others don't and study best in the morning or early morning. But you shouldn't study for 12 hours straight.

  • Recovery is to relax and do something else, go to the cinema and meet friends, do something else. Let your brain do something else because that's when it sinks in. Sleeping well is also very important. Sleep is important for passing the exam.

  • We at Student Health Services, Academic Writing Services and Pedagogical support can help out.

  Is there anything you would like to add?
  Recovery is an important topic. Going to our workshops and groups is a good way to prevent and stop stress because that's where you learn. It's good to go to such groups before you are stressed so you don't get stressed.