Student Mental Health and What CAMH Professionals Need to Know

03/03/22 • 29 min

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DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19313
TRIGGER WARNING: Please be aware that this podcast discusses personal experiences of self-harm and suicide.

This University Mental Health Day, we are joined by two students, Rhiannon Hawkins and Nathan Randles, to discuss student mental health and what CAMH professionals need to know.
Rhiannon currently studies Geography at the University of Oxford and Nathan is a medical student at Keele University. Both Rhiannon and Nathan are also Young Representatives for the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Rhiannon and Nathan set the scene by providing insight into what University Mental Health Day is, why it is so important, and what the impact of the pandemic has been on student mental health.
Rhiannon and Nathan talk to us about their own personal history and experience around mental health. They discuss their own past experiences with child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), and whether this support is still available as a student. Rhiannon also explores whether there is still stigma around students using mental health services at university and why some students may not access support.
Whilst both Rhiannon and Nathan describe quite robust systems of support within their own universities, they share their views on what else universities should be doing to support the mental health of their students, what message they have for policy makers, and what mental health professionals need to know about student mental health.
Furthermore, Rhiannon and Nathan discuss what message CAMHS professionals should take from University Mental Health Day and share how CAMHS professionals can get involved.

Previous Episode

From University to Research: A Conversation with an Aspiring Academic Psychiatrist

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19272
For this podcast, we are delighted to interview aspiring academic psychiatrist Clara Faria, winner of the ACAMH 2021 Undergraduate Clinical Trainee of the Year Award and ACAMH’s first Young Person’s Ambassador.

Clara sets the scene by providing insight into what it meant to her to be recognised as ACAMH’s 2021 Undergraduate Clinical Trainee of the Year, as well as being named as the first ACAMH Young Person’s Ambassador.
Having been previously divided between doing paediatrics and psychiatric training due to her interest in working with children, Clara talks us through how she resolved this conflict and discusses how she became involved with research in mental health, her role as a research assistant at the Laboratory of Panic and Respiration, and how this sparked her interest in child and adolescent mental health.
Clara also explores how she balanced the combination of work, research, and study during her undergraduate studies, and shares tips for others who are following a similar path.
Clara talks to us about her current work on two different main projects. The first is a systematic review predicting factors in ADHD diagnosis at the University of Southampton, and the latter is a genome-wide association study of anxiety disorders in Brazil. Clara discusses what her role is in both projects and provides an insight into what each project entails.
Furthermore, as Clara’s research encompasses both the UK and Brazil, Clara explores what insights she has gained from this exposure to different demographic groups and different health systems, as well as why it is so important in the field of child and adolescent mental health to disseminate evidence-based science to the broader population.

Next Episode

Adolescent Sleep: Stereotypes and Misunderstandings

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19446
For this podcast, focusing on adolescent sleep, we are joined by celebrated neuroscientist Dr. Dean Burnett, author of The Idiot Brain and a speaker at a February 2022 live stream event, The enigma of adolescent sleep: misunderstood science and effective intervention.
Dean sets the scene by exploring whether there is a typical teenage sleep pattern and if so, how this compares to an adult sleep pattern.
Dean then provides insight into the impact that the stereotypes of teenagers as being lazy, staying up all night, and being a bit delinquent can have, as well as what aspects of the science around adolescent sleep are misunderstood.
Dean also explains how we should be supporting our adolescents who naturally might sleep at different times to us, and shares an insight into what societal and policy changes could be implemented to support adolescent sleep.
Dean talks to us about the impact of insufficient sleep on behaviour, ability to study, and on mental health; exploring the comorbidity with sleep problems and anxiety and depression, as well as whether the relationship between sleep problems and psychopathology is bidirectional.
Furthermore, Dean shares his advice to people with adolescent children who struggle with sleep, to those who work with children and young people, as well as to young people themselves. This includes tips for getting to sleep, and what point you should call for professional support to help a young person who’s struggling with their sleep.