Time To Talk Day: Encouraging staff and students to make time to speak about their mental health
Students and staff are coming together to encourage speaking about mental health as part of this year’s Time to Talk Day.
Time to Talk Day, which is run by UK mental health charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, takes place annually and aims to promote the benefits of speaking about your mental health.
This year, Time to Talk Day is taking place on February 2nd and this year’s theme is all about making time in your day to speak about your mental health, highlighting the important services available to help do this.
Services include the Glasgow Students’ Nightline, which is a non-judgemental, non-advisory listening service available to students across Glasgow, including Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Glasgow and Strathclyde University.
Run by student volunteers, students and members of the public can get in touch using their telephone line or instant messaging, which runs from 7pm-7am Friday to Sunday and 7pm-12am if using the messaging service.
Training and Recruitment Officer and Applied Psychology student Maria Praxmayer is a big advocate of the message behind Time to Talk Day and wants to encourage students to use Glasgow Students’ Nightline if they would like to start that conversation.
What is your role with Glasgow Students’ Nightline?
“I’m a Training and Recruitment Officer, so I’m in charge of recruiting our volunteers; reading their applications, training new applicants and supporting our listening volunteers.
I’m also there as support for our team members, because although we’re there to help the community, the volunteers might need some support themselves to make the jobs easier for them.”
For those who haven’t used it before, what is the Glasgow Students’ Nightline?
“The Glasgow Student Nightline is a free, non-judgemental, non-advisory support service for students and members of the public. As the name suggests, it’s a support service that operates at night because this tends to be when other mental health support services tend to be closed.
People can use the Nightline to speak about whatever they want; it’s a safe space for people to share their feelings and doubts. Sometimes people want to use it to get something off their chest, when perhaps they didn’t feel like they couldn’t speak to anyone else. We’re there for everything really, no matter how big or how small. We’re there to listen and that’s the main point of the service.
The listening part is the most important. We use a technique called ‘Active listening’; we’re not there to tell anyone what to do, but to simply listen to them. We’re happy to provide any information that people may ask for, but we are there to simply listen and let people express their feelings”
How can students get involved with the Glasgow Students’ Nightline if they were interested in doing so?
“We tend to run recruitment intakes at least once a term and we’re actually looking for volunteers at the moment! The training is going to start on Friday 10 February, but we are extending the application deadline for any interested GCU students to apply by 5 February. However, if you’re not able to apply this term, students are more than welcome to apply during our next intake.
There are other ways to be involved as well. People can interact by using the service, sharing it with people that they think would benefit from it or even share posts from our social media to help spread awareness.”
Why is the message behind ‘Time to Talk Day’ so important?
“As a representative of Nightline, I feel that it’s important for two different reasons. Firstly, we are aware of how many people use the Nightline service and how much listening can help. It has allowed so many people to start that conversation about their mental health, when they might have not had the chance before. On the other hand, as someone whose role involves supporting our volunteers, we also see how talking about our own mental health can help each other as well.
It can be easy to hide or ignore your feelings about something in the hope that they will go away, but the longer they are ignored then the bigger they will become. The problem doesn’t get solved, but might grow into something more. However, starting the conversation about not feeling okay; whether feeling sad or angry, can begin the healing process. We are experiencing a global mental health crisis and the stigma that can sometimes go along with that, but one way to remove that stigma is normalizing talking about how you are feeling. If more people start to do this, then more people will realise that there is nothing to be ashamed of when talking about how you feel.”
If you were to give advice to someone who is wondering how to start that conversation, what would you say?
I understand that speaking to someone that you know about your feelings can be scary, so that might not always be the best starting point for people. There are many services that people can use if they want to speak to speak to someone confidentially, like Samaritans and Glasgow Student Nightline, as there are different ways to communicate with them. A different method might suit you better, for example; using an instant messaging service rather than speaking to someone over the phone.
However, if you have the safe space to do so, then talking to someone you are close to is also something that I would recommend. I understand that it can be daunting, so another way might be writing your feelings down on a note or even express your feelings through something creative, like art. Sometimes simple steps like this can lead to a conversation being made, even if it doesn’t seem like the conventional way.
For students studying at Glasgow Caledonian University, we have amazing support here. We have a dedicated Wellbeing Team who work to offer support for all aspects of mental health and wellbeing through a range of different services. There is always someone to talk to if you’re struggling and we have great staff here that would be happy to help. “
Find out more about Glasgow Student’s Nightline and their volunteering opportunities on their website
Please note, the application deadline for volunteers at Glasgow Students’ Nightline closes on 5 February
By Rachael McAlonan
Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media here