By Lara Carballo and Clair Dempsey, PGR candidates at CU
My colleague Clair and I were recently struck by the title of an article in the recent edition of THE (Times Higher Education) stating that one in three PhD students have sought mental health support. Reporting on a recent worldwide survey taken across this group, it explained that over a third of PhD students who had responded had said that they had sought professional support for anxiety or depression.
We didn’t disbelieve this figure in the slightest, but we did begin to wonder what it was that led to these issues, and so chose to unearth the original survey in a search for that “horse’s mouth” if you like.
The survey was devised to examine career intentions and programme satisfaction of PhD students worldwide, and provided responses from each of the continents – (to a greater or lesser extent, and perhaps requiring a whole separate blog post) – to the sum of 6320 participants.
Some of the figures provided by the survey were a particular cause for concern. It reported that around a fifth of these PhD researchers were required to carry out paid employment alongside their studies in order to supplement their living costs. Given that 75% of the respondents reported working in excess of 40 hours a week on their research, we began to wonder not only about the effect that an unequal work-life balance might have upon mental health, but also at the level of priority that people feel that they are able to put towards striking such a balance.
The answer to this came later in the report. On a list of concerns gained by students over the course of their studies, worries about work-life balance outranked those about their mental health. Here confusion set in because the figures suggested that the percentages of those who felt that a healthy work-life balance was supported by their universities were similarly low to those who reported being able to locate appropriate mental health support within their establishments. Why then did the two issues not rank nearer to each other on the list?
Perhaps people didn’t feel that there was a link between their wellbeing and their working hours? Or perhaps there wasn’t enough support available? Maybe respondents weren’t aware of what help was out there, or perhaps they simply didn’t have enough time to seek support!
In a desire to make a small offering of support, it dawned on us that perhaps a simple and clear signpost to the main services available to PhD researchers might be useful at this point. Please see the list of services below. The help may sometimes feel limited due to unwanted constraints, but support does exist so please don’t feel that you’re on your own.
Coventry University Mental Health Services
https://www.coventry.ac.uk/study-at-coventry/student-support/health-and-wellbeing/counselling-and-mental-health-service/
Researchers Mental Health and Wellbeing page
http://recap.coventry.domains/category/wellbeing/
Mental Health Zone
https://www.coventry.ac.uk/study-at-coventry/student-support/mental-health/
Mindfulness sessions
http://recap.coventry.domains/news/mindfulpgr-sessions/