New ‘Snack-Size Self Care’ project launch

Two Occupational Therapy lecturers are set to launch an innovative ‘Snack-Size Self Care’ project aimed at boosting student wellbeing and mental health.

Dr Emma Green and Leona McQuaid, from GCU’s Department of Occupational Therapy and Human Nutrition and Dietetics, will begin to pilot their project within the curriculum at the start of Trimester A on 26 September.

The project was awarded £2,274 through the University's Strategy for Learning Fund (SfL) 2030 and its transformative education vision. It is one of six projects in the School of Health and Life Sciences (SHLS) to receive financial backing for new ideas.

Dr Green and Leona have been collaborating with Occupational Therapy student Bethany Brammer who has been developing self-care resources for the project over the summer, and Student Wellbeing Advisor Christina Kelly who has been on hand to give advice.

They came up with the idea for the project in response to findings in last year’s Thriving Learning study which showed that 70% of GCU students surveyed reported having low wellbeing. It is also in recognition of one of the principals of Strategy for Learning 2030 about holistic learning.

Dr Green said: “Our aim is to equip students with the skills to manage their own self-care and wellbeing, and help them cope with those really pressured years, working particularly with level three and four undergraduates and Masters students in Occupational Therapy.

“It will also prepare them for future health and social care practice where we know that people drop out and get burn-out, particularly during that step from being a student to a graduate.

“Health and social care is really challenging at the moment. The snack-size self-care resources will equip them as a student but also to prepare them for professional practice by learning how to value health and wellbeing.

“The resources will be embedded within the curriculum in academic modules with an aspiration that it gives the students an opportunity to get a bite-sized (5-10 minutes) introduction to skills and techniques that might help them manage their wellbeing that they can choose and use which ones best suit them.

“We plan to evaluate the outcomes of the pilot project and look at the impact on students’ ability to manage their own self-care. If we can prove it works then hopefully it will be rolled out across the University.”

Leona praised Bethany for researching and developing the snack-size resources for the 12-week programme which will be embedded in GCU Learn modules and introduced at the beginning of classes at the start of Trimester A.

She said: “Bethany has been fantastic and she has done a lot of work on this researching and developing resources suitable for students which includes different themes every three weeks such as mindfulness, meditation, journaling, addressing critical-self talks.”

Christina said she initially shared some resources with Bethany and since then she “took it and ran with it”.

“As we move forward and the snack-size self-care resources are introduced, it will be an ideal opportunity to remind students that the student wellbeing service runs longer sessions if they found the snack-size resources helpful,” added Christina.