Following a partnership between the OU Students Association and the OU in Scotland, we’re delighted to have received a Student Mental Health Agreement (SMHA) recognition certificate from the National Union of Students Scotland’s ‘Think Positive’ project.
The SMHA sets out the OU in Scotland and OU Students Association’s commitment to working in partnership to promote the mental wellbeing of all students. The Agreement was developed for 2021–23, and it is for this developmental work that the certificate has been awarded. This is a document specific to our students in Scotland.
Ewelina Grzanka, Access Participation Success Manager for the OU in Scotland (OUiS), explains the SMHA in more detail:
“Some of the activity that we report on in the SMHA includes the Big Blether series, a forum to discuss student-related activities; Live Therapies, which provides free online counselling to OU students living in Scotland; bursaries and discretionary funding, such as a Carers’ Bursary and Care Experienced Bursary; Scotland-specific resources, such as the Digital Resources we sent to our students during the pandemic, and signposting to support outside the OU.
“As part of our work on the Student Mental Health Agreement, we have also contributed to the creation of the Think Positive Hub, an initiative of the National Union of Students, which brings together all of the projects, services, resources and news relating to student mental health, in an easy-to-access online hub.”
The awarding of a certificate for the expansion of the SMHA has therefore been a thrill for the OU in Scotland, as Ewelina confirms:
“We completed our self-evaluation for our 2021–23 SMHA and it was submitted to NUS Scotland at the beginning of July. We have now received the recognition certificate from them to acknowledge the work OUiS has done in this area, which is a great achievement.”
Details of the OU in Scotland’s mental health work can be found below: