Blog: SAMH & Glasgow Caledonian University mental health partnership
Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) and Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH) have a longstanding relationship, working together in close partnership to enhance and support the mental health and wellbeing of all our staff and students. Our work with SAMH is a key part of the GCU and GCU Students’ Associations’ Student Mental Health Agreement.
We set an outline for this partnership work in 2013 when we established a Memorandum of Understanding, and we have redeveloped and launched this again in 2024.
Central to this partnership is the secondment of Mentally Healthy University Coordinator from SAMH to the University’s Glasgow campus; engaging SAMH in the development of various areas of work such as our Suicide Prevention and Response Policy and guidance, and a series of awareness, wellbeing, and training events.
Some of the ways we have worked together is highlighted below.
Bespoke Training
Our development and delivery of bespoke training to over 700 staff across our Glasgow and London campuses on mental health and wellbeing. This training has raised staff’s understanding and confidence in dealing with their own and others’ mental health and they feel better equipped to support students and colleagues with theirs.
The sessions focus on providing a greater understanding of mental health and wellbeing, our roles, responsibilities, and boundaries when supporting each other, and where we can direct staff, students and others to ensure they access and receive appropriate support to help their individual situation.
Academic Partner for Psychological Wellbeing Strategy
Glasgow Caledonian’s Department of Psychology has been appointed as SAMH’s academic partner for its Psychological Wellbeing strategy. The partners work together on benchmarking SAMH’s Psychological Wellbeing strategies against up to date research and theory, and deliver a series of mutually beneficial academic, research and service-delivery projects.
One of these is Time for You, an online wellbeing service operated by SAMH and supported by Glasgow Caledonian students, which was initially developed to support frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and is now available to the general public.
Suicide Prevention courses
SAMH have also supported in the delivery of additional mental health and wellbeing courses for staff and students at Glasgow Caledonian University including ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) course and the SAMH online course Suicide Alertness Training.
We are continuing to expand this training provision, and will offer Wave After Wave and the Scottish Mental Health First Aid course throughout 2024.
Spotlight On
The partners have worked together with support from Santander Universities to deliver the Spotlight On series. This project aims to highlight mental health and the factors which can impact it. By doing so, we help to promote an inclusive culture of openness and trust, and raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing support.
The Spotlight On project consists of a series of topics which include: open and authentic panel discussions involving Glasgow Caledonian University and external experts and individuals with relevant lived experiences; a short explainer video to summarise key issues for a non-expert audience; and training materials and resources to enable staff and students to better understand the topic.
Wellbeing Events
SAMH and GCU have also worked in partnership to host a programme of mental health events on campus throughout the calendar, including embedded mental health talks during staff inductions and stalls for mental health awareness days such as University Mental Health Day and World Mental Health Day.
