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Mental wellbeing in university environments
85 Plays4 years ago
GUEST / DR NATASA LACKOVIC
- Profile page, University of Lancaster
- Centre For Higher Education Research & Evaluation
- Student Mental Health Network / SMARTEN
- Stepchange: mentally healthy universities
- Unite Students
HOST / MATT MORLEY
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Transcript
Introduction to Episode 35
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to episode 35 of the Green and Healthy Places podcast, in which we explore the worlds of sustainability and wellbeing in buildings and interiors.
Interview with Dr. Natasha Lachkovic
00:00:20
Speaker
I'm your host, Matt Morley, founder of Biofilico Healthy Buildings and Biofit Wellness Concepts. This week, I'm in the north of England, talking to the Serbian-born Dr. Natasha Lachkovic at the University of Lancaster about mental wellbeing in universities.
Webinar and Biophilic Design Discussion
00:00:38
Speaker
Natasha is the Director of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation, and her research interests include, but are not limited to, student and staff wellbeing and mental health, as well as visual arts based pedagogy. I recently participated in a webinar organised by Natasha and the Student Mental Health Network, SMARTAN, that's led by King's College London, in which I contributed a piece on the importance of indoor environments on our mental wellbeing.
Green and Healthy Design in Education and Work
00:01:06
Speaker
That webinar was largely based around Natasha's forthcoming graphic novel on student mental health, in which the themes of biophilic design, connection to nature in other words, and what she calls materiality were paramount and that's where our paths came together in many ways.
00:01:23
Speaker
The parallels between the worlds of work and education immediately surface in the conversation that follows, as I suspected they would, so keep an eye out for those as we go deeper into the topic. There's a lot of runway left in terms of bringing green and healthy design principles
00:01:38
Speaker
into the world of educational environments, i.e. university accommodation and university study spaces. That much is pretty clear to me now. Natasha brings a fresh and reassuringly accessible approach, though, to what can sometimes be a complex and thorny issue to untackle.
Role and Insights from Lancaster University
00:01:54
Speaker
So if you enjoy the show, please hit subscribe. All the contact details are in the show notes. And now it's over to Dr. Natasha. Natasha, your role
00:02:05
Speaker
as Director of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation. What does that evolve? What are your responsibilities there? Okay, so the Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation is situated within the Department of Education Research and Lancaster University, so Educational Research at Lancaster University. It is one of the oldest centres in the world
00:02:35
Speaker
conducting higher education research. We are committed to enhancing and transforming the higher education sector and its role in society, economy and culture. The Centre has two directors, so I'm one of the directors, and Centre directors provide academic leadership of the Centre, so this means things such as organising Centre's meetings, seminars or webinars,
00:03:03
Speaker
workshops, other things of strategic importance to the Centre, such as responding to student and staff needs, developing reviews, local international collaborations, Centre's image and its key activities. The Centre is also associated with our research programmes in higher education.
00:03:29
Speaker
OK, so then that sets the scene.
Challenges in UK Student Wellbeing
00:03:32
Speaker
And then if we go a layer deeper, we'll start to zero in a bit on this topic that interests me in terms of well-being and specifically student well-being at universities today. From your position, what do you see as being the key issues that are affecting student well-being at university in the UK today?
00:03:55
Speaker
Okay, tough question. But I think that one of the key issues is an increase in the demand for student well-being services, which can outweigh the capacity of the services. And well-being services are constantly under pressure and work at full capacity.
00:04:18
Speaker
Another thing is that there is a need for a whole university approach to mental health so that it becomes a strategic priority at universities. This is part of the most recent strategic framework called step change, mentally healthy universities.
00:04:39
Speaker
published by Universities UK and co-developed with Student Minds, University Mental Health Charter. So the strategy means seeing mental health as a multifaceted phenomenon, you know, that needs to be tackled across four domains, which are learn, work, support and live.
Strategic Framework for Mental Health
00:05:01
Speaker
So, you know, learn,
00:05:03
Speaker
it actually tackles the curriculum and how students learning relates to their mental health and work is linked to staff wellbeing, support, what kind of support is needed to prevent particular conditions, especially prevent suicide and live is linked to
00:05:30
Speaker
living conditions and student accommodation, for example. So this approach aims to develop structural, practical and environmental conditions for healthy universities, which means healthy learning, working, support living spaces and lifestyle, I suppose.
Historical vs. Contemporary Student Wellbeing Issues
00:05:55
Speaker
That all sounds fairly new to me. I mean, just as a side note, I mean, go if I was at, I was at university 20 years ago. I don't remember that being any, to be honest, I can't remember if there were any particular mental health issues, at least in terms of my experience or anything that was going on around me, or I certainly wasn't conscious of it at the time. Just to understand perhaps a bit of the history, would you say,
00:06:22
Speaker
Is it a contemporary like recent problem or it's always been there and there's perhaps just more awareness of the issues in terms of student mental wellbeing today than there were 20 years ago or 40 years ago for the previous generation? Well, I personally think that it has always been there, but probably there is, as you said, there is a greater awareness.
New Pressures on Student Mental Health
00:06:48
Speaker
these days and
00:06:52
Speaker
I don't know, perhaps there are other I'd say structural influences, you know, contemporary pressures that students are facing. Because I mean, can I just check with you when you studied, did you have to pay fees and you know, students are also
00:07:20
Speaker
now under the pressure to repay the student debt. And it's difficult, this generation of students, like the new generations of students, they're not in the same position, for example, to find jobs or get on the property ladder, for example.
Pandemic's Effect on Mental Health
00:07:45
Speaker
as it used to be, you know, you're saying, you know, you're referring to 20 years ago. So I think these new pressures, I'd say, and now we have, you know, the COVID, is it COVID, post-COVID situation, but and other things that are, I think, increasingly,
00:08:15
Speaker
weighing students, I think it has been intensified probably over the last, I don't know, maybe 10, 15 to 20 years.
00:08:26
Speaker
OK, well, you mentioned COVID, so let's go there because we have to at some point. And when I talk about workplace wellness, which is typically perhaps more my field of expertise, here we're going a little bit off-piste into the realms of universities and educational environments. But I think there's a lot of commonalities. I think there's a lot of similarities between the massive increase in dialogue and debate around
00:08:56
Speaker
mental health in the workplace that has emerged over the last 18 months in response to COVID. And when I say, you know, mental health in the workplace, clearly that also means the mental health of those working from home outside of the physical workspace. But there is now a level of acceptance, not just of the importance of this subject in general, but of actually how much work there is to do to
00:09:25
Speaker
to help and resolve problems and I think bigger organisations are, there are some who are not doing as much as perhaps they could, but there's certainly some organisations and businesses that are really making massive changes to how they operate and how they address and respond to and in some senses prevent mental health issues getting out of hand. Have you seen the same
00:09:48
Speaker
experience in the world of education and particularly UK universities has the response been adequate and perhaps you could describe if it's possible some of the things that you've seen students going through over the last 18 months. What's their experience been like?
00:10:06
Speaker
Well, I think the COVID crisis affected students, but also staff wellbeing in profound ways. A switch to online learning, you know, that meant that students had to organise, but also staff.
00:10:25
Speaker
and their lives I mean our lives and whole university engagement and experience around working and studying from home you know or being students being isolated you know in student accommodation because let's think about students from
00:10:45
Speaker
in the UK from far away places, such as China, a lot of students had to actually stay and isolate themselves on campus, for example.
Studies and Environmental Support for Students
00:10:58
Speaker
So there are studies that show how the COVID crisis affected students in negative ways. And I can provide the link to these studies if you wish.
00:11:10
Speaker
But in our project, we did a survey of more than 120 students and found that COVID-19 really intensified the importance of healthy and supportive environments. And this is the importance of space where you live, learn and work. But also, I'd say the
00:11:39
Speaker
blurring of the boundaries between work, life and learning.
00:11:46
Speaker
was difficult. And if we talk about students, but I'm sure the same accounts for staff, the proximity to nature, as well as bringing, you know, the nature indoors, you know, through plants or even engaging with pets, you know, animals that provided a source of comfort, a source of positive
00:12:16
Speaker
positive well-being, positive emotions.
Student Accommodation Improvements
00:12:22
Speaker
So it was a struggle for, I think, a lot of people. So you have the two big categories there, right? You have the student accommodation,
00:12:40
Speaker
which is typically perhaps I'm guessing say the first year of the university experience after which many students as I remember then find their own accommodation independently right so let's call it that first year in equivalent of halls but and then the environments themselves on campus so if we look at the accommodation like there seems to be quite a bit of movement in the student accommodation market particularly in the
00:13:03
Speaker
sort of privatization or private real estate developers doing things aimed specifically at students that look really quite revolutionary at least from outside in terms of what's available and that the standard and quality of specifically student accommodation but operated and managed by what appear to be effectively independent
00:13:24
Speaker
operators that I don't clearly I clearly don't remember 20 years ago. So is that is that a new positive trend that's creating more options for students? How do you see what's happening specifically in terms of accommodation? Well, that is a good question. And although I'm not an expert in that, and I don't have an in-depth insider understanding of the accommodation services and provisions.
00:13:54
Speaker
I am aware that there is some good work and interest in student well-being in the organization such as, you know, students and because, you know, they cover the entire kind of, I'd say, accommodation space or landscape.
00:14:21
Speaker
in the UK, kind of different regions. And I know that they have a very vigorous interest in supporting student mental health and improving the conditions, the kind of living conditions for students. For example, I just wanted to illustrate something that I am aware of.
00:14:46
Speaker
And on campus, how do you see there? Are you seeing developments on campus itself in terms of creating environments when you mentioned the idea of having more nature around perhaps taking your pets into the library with you is a bit too much for obvious
Lancaster University's Environmental Initiatives
00:15:05
Speaker
reasons. But, you know, are you seeing change? And did you see that there's perhaps more
00:15:13
Speaker
effort being made in terms of creating study environments that are productive and promote creativity and productivity? Or do you think there's still a long way to go in terms of universities in general, catching up with perhaps what we're seeing already in the world of office design? That's another interesting question, Matt.
00:15:34
Speaker
I can first of all say a few reflections in relation to what I am aware when it comes to Lancaster University. I started working at Lancaster University in 2014, so it has been seven years and I have
00:15:56
Speaker
kind of witnessed the transformation of Lancaster University campus into a nicer, I would say, more green and well-being, a conducive environment if that's the right expression. So many, many things that are environmentally friendly and also
00:16:26
Speaker
you know that take care of sustainability and you know universities outlook towards sustainability were also adopted so you know things like uh trees you know new trees planted uh the the university itself is on a very very uh green uh
00:16:48
Speaker
fields situated among the beautiful green rolling hills in Lancashire and that is a very nice environment.
Campus-based vs. City-based University Differences
00:17:02
Speaker
So it's worth mentioning that there is a big difference between
00:17:07
Speaker
campus-based university spaces, you know, such as Lancaster and especially, you know, the campuses that are situated, you know, in the natures is literally that that's what the case with Lancaster University campuses and the campuses that are
00:17:26
Speaker
I don't know what city-based countess is, if that makes sense. These are very, very different types of university buildings and they would, I think, look very differently.
Interconnected Wellbeing of Staff and Students
00:17:43
Speaker
So that's what I can say that I have seen a lot of changes, for example, the refurbishment of the library,
00:17:50
Speaker
to make it a kind of nicer environment for students, more, I guess, pleasant when it comes to both, you know, learning, but also socializing as well. But still, I guess there is much work to be done on
00:18:12
Speaker
really enhancing the wellbeing and sustainability potential and need that can actually improve staff and students' wellbeing and mental health. So yeah, you mentioned that again, that staff and student mental wellbeing, and clearly there's perhaps the temptation just to think of
00:18:42
Speaker
students, but in fact, the ecosystem of mental well-being on campus or at a university is made up of both those who work there, the staff and the students. So do you look at both sides? So there are sort of perhaps different issues affecting students versus the staff, but you tend to sort of consider both. Is there a big division between them in terms of how the research is treated, looking at the two different groups?
00:19:11
Speaker
Well, it's true that research can separate these two groups, but I personally think that we're both in the same boat. So, staff wellbeing is part and parcel of healthy universities, right? So, due to the high workload and pressures associated with working at universities,
00:19:37
Speaker
Staff also needs support when it comes to healthy working environment. You know, when it comes not to the healthy working environment, but also tackling student mental health, you know, how we support our students and how we support ourselves.
Graphic Novel as a Research Outcome
00:19:53
Speaker
and also how we can strike the right balance, the right life work balance. So, staff mental health is central to the domain of work. I referred to earlier, if you remember when I talked about that strategic framework, step change, mental health, and the whole university approach. And yeah, so I think it's
00:20:22
Speaker
It's something that is relevant to both students and staff, but we can probably talk about, you know, different factors, but also a lot of shared factors that concern those concepts. And so you mentioned the research project that you've recently completed.
00:20:49
Speaker
with 120 students, I think you mentioned. Was that the research project that gave birth to the latest online book that you've published, Things in the Mind? Yes, that's right. And for that project, we co-developed a graphic novel
00:21:13
Speaker
together with students about their experience of mental health in relation to everyday materiality. When I say everyday materiality, I'm talking about spaces, places, environments, and everyday personal objects and items. But we didn't
00:21:34
Speaker
only developed the graphic novel. We also did a student survey in order to understand better how students felt and how they experienced their environments and the objects that surround them on a daily basis. Certainly from what I've seen of having
00:21:58
Speaker
read through I think it was a sort of a pre-release copy that you kindly shared with me but you know it was fascinating to see some of these themes around what I would call say like biophilia so connection to nature and how you'd picked up in the novel
00:22:16
Speaker
without it being about interior design or architecture. And yet there was, you know, it was a recurring theme of the connection between student mental, like so the internal wellbeing and the external spaces in which they're spending their time.
Power of Visual Storytelling
00:22:36
Speaker
Could you talk to us on that theme? Because it came up again and again, and it was, it was great for me to see it being
00:22:42
Speaker
positioned in a completely different way to a very new audience because it's such a, it's a topic that's so relevant and you got there completely organically just through responses from the students, it seems. Yes, it was really interesting and exciting and transformative.
00:23:02
Speaker
for all of us to go through that project, it was transformative for me. And I also learned a lot from our students, co-creators and the role of spaces, places and everyday objects that students encounter. So in one word, materiality is really a new field in mental health and student mental health research in particular. And if you prefer also educational
00:23:36
Speaker
It is related to an established field of material culture and different approaches that address materiality in human and university experiences, such as social and materiality studies, for example. I mean, I won't get into any detail of these approaches. I'm just trying to say that what is new in our study is actually
00:23:52
Speaker
psychology so but
00:24:07
Speaker
exploring everyday environment and objects in the context of mental health and wellbeing.
00:24:15
Speaker
and especially student mental health research. And so, you know, there are studies actually that show the role, the positive role of indoor places, and this is particularly designed, you mentioned biophilia, so biophilic design of indoor places, and, you know, how they can have
00:24:40
Speaker
positive effects on well-being and if the environmental conditions are not that great then there is of course negative impact on well-being and mental health.
00:24:58
Speaker
So there are lots of things there, you know, atmosphere, the feel of the place, and it's such an interesting area. There were so many things that students referred to ranging from mugs, you know, to staircases, environments such as the gym or the library, you know, the canal that is not far from Lancaster University because that's the
00:25:27
Speaker
where our students, participants were situated around. So a really wide range of environments and objects that students actually related to deeply and they saw their
00:25:51
Speaker
well-being and lived authentic mental health experiences through those environments and objects and for them that was something new that they actually, before they did that, they hadn't done before and that was really transformative for them when we asked them how they felt about it.
00:26:14
Speaker
I think it's a really exciting field and it opens up a lot of potential for different avenues to explore in the future, including, of course, the role of biophilia and biophilic design.
00:26:30
Speaker
what's most encouraging about it from me is that, you know, for those of us working in effectively, you know, the field of real estate and interiors, you know, we can get a little bit myopic, we can sort of, you know, get lost in our own world and using our own terminology for things. And I think what I got from reading the graphic novel online was
00:26:55
Speaker
the just how raw it was and how the students were effectively communicating a very deep instinct. They didn't have the terminology that an interior designer or an architect might have, and they didn't need it, but they still understood something inside them was telling them that the space around them and their relationship to that space was vital. And if they got it wrong, if they weren't getting out
00:27:25
Speaker
to walk by the canal or spend time with the dog playing in the park or whatever it might be. It almost became, I think, and it was so well communicated in some of the visuals. It became the sort of, oh, messy room, underground, unpleasant gym, no time in nature, negative mental mood state versus positive mental mood state for someone who had a tidy room, an organized life, and was able to spend some time in nature.
Future Research and Interactive Resources
00:27:51
Speaker
And it was just so simple.
00:27:54
Speaker
and natural that it clearly came to them without there being any theory behind it there was there was it was a very pure response i think that would be fair yes absolutely you put it so well matt so um i i think
00:28:12
Speaker
This is the power of visual storytelling as well and how we worked with the students because we invited students to develop their own scenarios, to share their own feelings about how their surrounding environment and everyday objects and personal items that they use
00:28:41
Speaker
regularly, how that relates to their mental health. And because that was new
00:28:49
Speaker
To them, it also posed a kind of creative challenge. And I think just as you say, they really did a wonderful job of almost intuitively presenting something that, you know, we can find evidence on what they actually expressed in research, but also that aligns with, you know, the principles of biophilia and biophilia
00:29:16
Speaker
design as well. And for me, that was another thing that fascinated me as the research and kind of project investigator. I think in many ways we're talking about, or it can be in very different fields, education, higher education research and evaluation.
00:29:40
Speaker
interior design, workplace wellbeing, but actually we're often talking about similar things, perhaps using different language, but ultimately getting to similar experiences and trying to find ways to improve on that, those physical spaces, because once you understand the impact, then you see how you can.
00:30:03
Speaker
make a difference or encourage people to adapt their lifestyle a little bit. So what happens next for your, you've published the book, the graphic novel online, where do you go from here? What other projects do you have or do you intend to evolve what you've done and take it forward? Are you moving on to other projects? Oh, I would really love to develop this further. So, you know, we recently launched
00:30:30
Speaker
digital resource that embeds a graphic novel and the novel let was not referred to it as some kind of unnamed object is called things in the mind and so what happened that the launch we
00:30:49
Speaker
had the conversation with different stakeholders, different people and professionals interested in student well-being, but also interested
00:31:04
Speaker
in the role of the art and design in mental health and wellbeing. And I think that the next step for the project is to, and for me, is to continue this work because we have had a really positive
00:31:29
Speaker
feedback from students and from stakeholders such as well-being services and health services and at the moment I have been developing
00:31:46
Speaker
an interactive digital resource that embeds different kinds of interactions in order to engage readers with these different interactions on the selected page of the graphic novel. Of course, if readers choose to interact with them. And I can just briefly sketch what these interactions
00:32:11
Speaker
are so there are questions to learn about different things so like multiple choice questions and there are also questions to answer by the readers so there are open-ended questions that readers can answer and that will help us also collect further data you know deepen our understanding on you know students experiences
00:32:35
Speaker
further. And third, there are also the so-called information points that offer a diverse range of information and insight posting for readers, who will be students, who can be actually any person interested in well-being and mental health and the role of everyday environments and objects in our lives.
00:33:04
Speaker
And this can be also embedded in the work, you know, and diverse stakeholders practices. So I'm very hopeful and excited about what could happen next, Matt.
Conclusion and Thanks
00:33:23
Speaker
Yeah, well, it's a great piece of work. I mean, it really is like, you know, it goes way beyond a static
00:33:28
Speaker
obviously a printed book, but also beyond even a digital Kindle version, it very much becomes somewhere between a website and an interactive reading experience. So I encourage everyone to check it out. We'll include a link to Things and the Mind, your latest graphic novel. I'm probably not the last of your graphic novels. I expect there may be more. We'll link to that in the show notes. Thascha, thank you so much for your time. It's been a real pleasure.
00:33:55
Speaker
Thank you for inviting me, Matt. It's been a real joy talking to you. Thank you.