Talking About The Elephant in the Room: Bridging the gap between Peer Support and Institutional Mental Health Services
Even prior to the coronavirus outbreak, Student Welfare has shone as a focal point of conversations on campus across the four student bodies. University is an inherently stressful experience: the toll of balancing any mix of employment, social lives, academic pressures and moving out of home for the first time was challenging enough even before adding a global pandemic into the mix. As society begins to become more open and transparent when talking about mental health, the extent to which students in particular suffer from mental health problems becomes more and more evident. Our generation is gradually shifting towards being more comfortable discussing the provision and access to mental health resources on campus, but this highlights a severe gap in the provision of support to students suffering from mental health problems. With waiting lists to see university therapists sometimes reaching up to weeks, student organisations have willingly sprung up to help support their community in the absence of university organised resources. These students dedicate countless hours of their own time each week to helping other students, yet often face issues accessing funding, professional training and administrative support. I sat down with Monique Raranga, Convenor of Elephant In The Room, to talk about her experiences with trying to improve student welfare on campus.
Elephant in the Room is a subcommittee of the Queen Margaret Union whose “overall aim is to improve student welfare”, through a variety of different methods including “linking students to different support services for formal and informal support, campaigning for changes, pushing for new initiatives and providing a safe space on campus to destress and reflect on mental health”. Monique, like a lot of other committee members at Elephant in the Room, fell into being involved through friends at the QMU, starting as communications officer last year, where she started the iconic Elephant In The Room instagram! As a lot of older committee members started to graduate and move on from university, she stepped up as convenor, with the AGM happening almost as soon as Covid-19 had started to spread across the UK.
Starting a year with a new committee is always a daunting task at the best of times, with Monique reflecting on the impact of Covid as initially particularly detrimental to engagement in terms of advertising the committee. However, as people began to adjust to the new normal, it became clear the crisis had underlined a “shared passion for mental health” across the university community. Covid-19 has brought its own unique set of mental health challenges. Especially at university, isolating in halls and student flats brings up a lot of anxiety and stress. Yet, the situation isn’t without hope - a lot of people are keen to engage and help, with the conversation around mental health being amplified in a way it never has before, as “more people feel comfortable asking for, and providing, help”.
This was particularly reflected in Freshers’ Week, where Elephant ran a series of Creative Sessions and Big Conversations - all online due to health risks and efforts to maintain accessibility to freshers at home or isolating. These events are Elephant staples, with Creative Sessions providing an opportunity for people to express themselves artistically and Big Conversations providing a safe space for people to have open and genuine conversations surrounding mental health. Reflecting on the week, Monique found it “overall really good, with great engagement especially given the circumstances" - like most societies Elephant’s main struggle is trying to get the word out, but a number of freshers came who were new to Elephant and the QMU! She was particularly pleased at how both freshers and returning students engaged with the Creative Session as “a safe space to discuss how they use art to relax and express their mental health", with people exchanging stories and advice in the Zoom chat throughout. The week also saw several collaborations, including with Nightline and the Indian Society, reflecting the eagerness of students across campus to engage with the mental health conversation.
Elephant In The Room carves out its niche on campus by being solely focused on student welfare, which is at the heart of all their activities. By providing a chill, safe space they aim to provide students with a space to practice self care and relax away from their studies. Their Big Conversations especially provide an area to chat about mental health with other students in an informal capacity. This ethos is reflected in the way they function as a committee, where they try to be very relaxed and understanding of each other’s mental health, picking up each other’s slack and stepping back when they need to.
Whilst Monique has never personally engaged with the counselling services, she is aware of the mixed reputation they have amongst students. Those who have managed to access support have generally found it to be really good and supportive, however, the waiting lists and lack of clear signposting can be off-putting to students seeking help, particularly those in a vulnerable mental state. Even the perception of a waiting list can be demotivating, and students may feel unduly guilty taking up limited spaces for counselling, often perceiving their issues to be ‘less severe’ than others. It was this perception that led Monique, and others, to seek alternative forms of support, turning to peer-bases services like Nightline instead.
At the institutional level, it is clear the university is perhaps not going far enough to support students who are struggling with mental health, with the services they provide failing to meet the surge in demand which is reflective of underlying societal pressures. Monique believes the
Counselling And Psychological Services (CAPS) can be better signposted and funded by the university, as well as potentially benefiting from further training on intersectional mental health. Yet, she also recognises the genuine care and empathy from most individuals at the university. In her experience, lecturers have been very accommodating with extensions, particularly when issues surrounding mental health are clearly communicated and evidenced. This is perhaps the Catch 22 of mental health - it is when support is most needed that individuals find it hardest to find the motivation and clarity of communication to navigate such a nuanced and complex system. She highlights the gap in institutional culture and provisions as something that could be strengthened by the university to stop the onus falling on individual lecturers to restrict support - extension decisions shouldn’t come down to the empathy of individual lecturers.
In general, Monique feels the university has a huge reliance on volunteers for activities that could, and should, be provided by the university themselves. Peer Services play an important link in the provision of mental health services to students: people might not feel comfortable accessing professional services, or may see their issues as ones they would rather talk about to peers in a more comfortable, casual setting. Monique stresses the value of providing more informal support that's accessible to everyone regardless of case severity - one of the key postulates of Elephant in the Room is that “everyone has a mental health”. The same way physical ailments can vary from a broken leg to a sneeze, peer support services like Elephant and Nightline are good for providing low level support for mental health stresses. Yet, they cannot replace organised, professional support from the university. Monique believes “there should be an equal choice people can make” as to whether they go down the peer support route or seek professional help - they shouldn’t be forced to turn to student groups as a substitute for professional guidance.
The best advice Monique has for students seeking professional help on campus is, “if you think you need more professional help, keep seeking it out. Keep trying - you're always deserving of support.” A wait doesn’t lessen the benefit these services can provide and only you know what is best for your mental health. She also urges students to consider looking beyond campus, to your GP and to services offered by mental health charities, as well as turning to the people who you trust and are willing to listen to you in the meantime. As well as Elephant in the Room, Monique also highlights GU Positive Minds as a society who are great at providing peer support by letting students choose a partner volunteer from a list of bios and interests to chat to and provide advice, as well as running nice, positive events. The University of Glasgow Nightline services sits within a national service that really cares about what they do in terms of filling the gaps in mental health support left by society, particularly at night time which can be a particularly triggering time for anxiety and loneliness. The Peer Support Programme at the university also operates on a school by school basis, with particularly developed programmes in the Business School and the Medicine and Vet schools. As well as these, there are constantly new societies and groups popping up to help support students, particularly in this challenging time.
One of the biggest barriers to student groups looking to provide mental health support is the lack of professional training. Monique highlights the idea of an informal toolkit as something best placed to help students deliver the casual support they aim to, the Mind Your Mate workshop by the SRC standing out as potentially useful. She looked into trying to organise mental health first aid training but faced budget constraints, illustrative of the lack of support student groups receive from the university. She also acknowledges “there is definitely a line [as to what support they can provide] - we always stress that we're a group of students with a passion and knowledge about mental health, but we can’t provide professional support ourselves, rather we’re here to link you to the right support services” - judgements are made on a personal level based on their instincts.
The toll that organising these events takes on individuals should also be acknowledged. At Elephant they “do our best to support the community but try and treat ourselves the same way and follow our own advice”. Monique stresses the importance of knowing when to tap out, citing the recent crisis at Murano as a particular example, explaining “it is difficult to not get invested because student mental health is something I am so passionate about and can personally connect with”. Reflecting on her own experiences moving into Murano and the anxieties this brought for her, she found “the idea of other students having to face this ... heartbreaking and it did take a toll on me mentally”. The feeling of helplessness is amplified by knowing that despite running a successful peer support group, the ultimate responsibility for supporting students rests with the university who could be doing more.
When asked what her ideal world looks like in terms of mental health, Monique has a clear vision of “One where there is really strong communication”. People suffering would be able to communicate their need from help, different support services could coordinate their efforts and the university would liaise with CAPS and students as to what support is available. She believes “mental health should be a priority in every sector of society”, whatever career or stage of life you’re in. She calls on conversations to be intersectional and consider how different stressors impact mental health with established support structures in place to deal with these. Fundamentally, she calls for “compassion and communication based approach” when talking about mental health, which for too long has been the elephant in the room of our society.
Thank you to Monique Raranga, Convenor of Elephant in the Room for making this article possible! More information and resources from Elephant can be found here: linktr.ee/elephantintheroom
