8 FORGE PRESS
FRIDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2017
NEWS PRIORITISE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH Welfare Officer Anna Mullaney talks to Forge Press about her new campaign to prioritise student mental health...
Everyone should be prioritising our mental health. That means the University, the Students’ Union, the city, the country, the world, the solar system, the universe, etc., as well as you yourselves. You deserve to prioritise your own mental health, even when it doesn’t feel like it. At the moment, I don’t feel that mental health is adequately prioritised by any of the aforementioned groups, whether it is intended to be or otherwise. We live in an incredible city, we study at an amazing institution, and we’re members of an exceptional Union. And yet, we live and breathe in the context of a complex and constant mental health crisis. As your elected Students’ Union Welfare Officer, I feel there’s no welfare issue more utterly ever-present and interwoven into student world than that of our mental health.
“... we live and breathe in the context of a complex and constant mental health crisis.” I do not accept the idea that our generation is just less able to cope with the context around us, as we have seen in some recent media. The ideologies that produce such narratives are easily penetrable and simply disproven. The movement for student mental health should not just be about ensuring the correct support or reactionary approach, but must also begin to consider the causes of the crisis. How have we got here? How have we reached a stage where support services feel bursting at the seams
and the effects of the crisis seems to be crawling into every aspect of university life? It is important to ensure that we help those affected, but we can help them even more by preventing their distress from occurring in the first instance. Many ideas have been thrown into the discussion of how we’ve got here. The context of a cost of living crisis, fees, the marketisation of Higher Education, student poverty, the increasing pressures of employability, graduate prospects, social media and more have all been cited as potential causes. As part of this campaign, we hope to prioritise mental health by conducting a survey, as part of a wider piece of research, to scope the situation of student mental health in Sheffield, and to become more streamlined in our approach. Make sure you keep an eye out for the launch of our survey for your opportunity to feed into this. You’ll see images around the Students’ Union and around the University encouraging you to sleep, eat, exercise and get in touch with friends. These may sound like simple ideas, but we understand how hard it can be to focus on them at certain points in your university life. For example, it may feel like a ridiculous idea to go for a run instead of spending an extra hour on that essay, but I promise you it’s worth it. So, when I say ‘Prioritise Our Mental Health’ I mean it in the broadest sense, because it absolutely is broad. As such, the campaign I’m proud to be launching today has several different facets, but revolves around two key themes: 1. I hope to support you to prioritise your mental health. 2. I hope to persuade everyone else to prioritise our mental health.
Revolutionary poem removes pollution from air Lisa Latham Head of News
•• ‘In Praise of Air’ poem removed two tonnes of nitrogren oxide. •• University researchers are developing more enviornmental projects to remove pollution. The installation of a revolutionary pollution-removing poem by the University of Sheffield has removed over two tonnes of nitrogen oxide from the air. The poem, ‘In Praise of Air’, was written by award-winning writer and Professor of Poetry at the University’s School of English, Simon Armitage. The poem, printed on a material developed by scientists at the University which is coated in titanium dioxide, uses catalytic oxidation to convert pollutants in the atmosphere into harmless molecules when exposed to sunlight. The 20 metre poem exhibition ran from May 2014 to January 2017. Professor Joanna Gavins, who leads the project from the University of Sheffield’s School of English, said: “Pollution is a major problem for the world’s urban areas but so far we as a society haven’t fully adopted any long-term solutions to tackle the problem.
“Scientists, such as my colleagues in Sheffield, are developing technologies to help us clean the environment but it’s the arts and humanities that can help raise awareness of environmental issues and inspire people to adopt altruistic pro-environmental behaviours. “Since the poem was installed in 2014 we’ve been inundated with positive and supportive comments from the community and passers-by. It also generated interest from people all over the world and received worldwide media coverage. We’ve had lots of comments from people who feel it has not only made an impact on the environment but added another cultural landmark to the city.” The team hopes that similar technologies may be replicated on
billboards and artwork worldwide to help tackle pollution, and are currently developing other public poems on environmental issues. They have also been working with Northern Flags, one of the UK’s leading companies in flag design, and Pureti who manufacture photocatalytic products, to begin research into developing aircleansing signs that could be used in fuel station forecourts and roadside advertising. Professor Tony Ryan, who developed the pollution-busting technology at the University of Sheffield’s Department of Chemistry, said: “The project has been really well received both in Sheffield and all over the world. If we could replicate this in every urban area in the UK then we could have much better air quality.”
NHS health apps need further evaluation, says University Hope Cunningham News Editor The NHS could be wasting money on online e-therapies, a new study by the University of Sheffield has found. The study, published in the BMJ, suggested that these e-therapies may not been properly evaluated due to the health provision landscape not being well defined across England. Matthew Bennion, from the Department of Psychology, said: “Right now, NHS England has a huge opportunity to expand mental health care using apps, but to do this successfully it must ensure that common standards apply across its services.” There is an urgent need for
online therapies that aim to tackle depression, anxiety and stress as they have the capacity to help the NHS reduce waiting lists, be more cost effective and reduce pressures on mental health professionals. According to the study, however, because these e-therapies are not used consistently or recommended across England, a ‘postcode lottery’ of service provision has resulted. Furthermore, many apps recommended are also only free in certain areas of England, requiring patients to pay in others. Researchers also found that only one out of the 48 apps examined was aimed specifically at young people. The research highlights that changes must be made to establish
clear guidelines for digital mental health service provisions and to build an evidence base with the purpose of evaluating their effectiveness. The evaluation comes at a crucial time after the Prime Minister announced an expenditure of £67.7 million on digital mental health earlier this year.