The Challenge of Student Mental Well-Being: Reconnecting Students Services with the Academic Universe

Current dialogues in the Higher Education sector highlight a range of tensions and uncertainties about university responses to student mental health that potentially contribute to a lack of clarity about the role of Student Services and institutions. These dialogues suggest that there is a need for theory which can seek to answer the following four central questions:
1.
What role should universities and Student Services play in relation to student mental health and well-being?

2.
What balance of proactive and reactive responses should universities adopt?

3.
If institutions are to adopt a “whole university approach,” what should the role of Student Services be within this approach?

4.
How closely positioned should Student Services be to core university missions and the academic universe?

This chapter explores these issues and proposes a conceptual model for Student Services’ responses to well-being and learning, arguing for the adoption of a research, practice, and teaching model to ensure better collaboration between academic and professional staff and closer integration of well-being and learning. Using practical examples and clinical evidence, it argues that well-being services should be based on developmental rather than deficiency-based models of practice and that well-being interventions should include support for academic learning.

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