Be Well at Bath

The University's approach to mental health and wellbeing, informed by our staff and students.

Have your say on wellbeing and mental health provision

About Be Well at Bath

Be Well at Bath is our whole University approach to mental health and wellbeing, providing a strategic plan to improve our community’s wellbeing.

Be Well at Bath aims to improve student and staff mental health and wellbeing and embed good practice across the University. We strive to consider wellbeing and mental health in all our activities and functions, touching on all aspects of student and staff life at Bath.

Be Well at Bath is led by Professor Cassie Wilson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience) and Professor Jane White, Vice-President (Community & Inclusion), with senior leads across our four key principles:

Professor Nathalia Gjersoe (Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience)
In the process of recruitment (Director, Student Support & Safeguarding)
Heather Girling (Staff Health & Wellbeing Manager, HR)
Catherine Bailey (Deputy Director, Student Support & Safeguarding)

Alongside the long-ranging benefits and outcomes of taking a strategic approach to our community’s wellbeing, the ‘Be Well’ principles and action plans will help us deliver on our goal to achieve a Mental Health Charter Award.

Our University Strategy 2021 to 2026 recognises the fundamental importance of staff and student wellbeing. Acknowledging the strides already made in the provision of support, training, and resources to support student and staff wellbeing, it pledges to continue to focus on this area. Fostering an outstanding and inclusive community at Bath is one of the pillars of our University Strategy.

Ongoing feedback from the whole University community is vital. Have your say on Mental Health and Wellbeing at the University.

Our principles

Together with staff and students, we aspire to create a learning environment and organisational culture of care that enhances mental health and wellbeing across our diverse community.

Deliver a rich learning experience that supports wellbeing at every stage of the student’s progression into, through, and on from their studies.

Ensure our physical and virtual spaces and activities promote an inclusive community where everyone can thrive and feels they belong.

Create a thriving, sustainable, safe and supportive workplace that proactively enables staff to protect their health and wellbeing.

Promote and support good health and wellbeing for all and empower our community to access high quality services when they need them.

The University Mental Health Charter

The Mental Health Charter was created by Student Minds to shape a future in which everyone in higher education can thrive.

In November 2022, we submitted our application for the University Mental Health Charter and received a two-day visit from assessors in February 2023. We learned in October 2023 that we achieved an ‘Award with Conditions (Ongoing Award)’. This means we are working hard over the next 12 months to meet these conditions to achieve a full award. This is positive progress and we will keep our community updated.

We are using the Charter framework and feedback from our community to shape our strategic action plan for ’Be Well’ at Bath.

Supporting the commitment to the Mental Health Charter, Professor Ian White, Vice-Chancellor and President commented:

The mental health and wellbeing of our staff and students is a key priority for our institution and we hope that the Mental Health Charter programme will allow us to look critically at our own practices and provision and ensure that the University is a safe, satisfying and happy place to work and study.

Promote, Prevent, Support

We follow the Promote, Prevent, Support pathway for mental health and wellbeing:

Promote: taking a proactive approach to promote health and wellbeing
Prevent: helping people to be aware of wellbeing and prepared to take action
Support: spotting the signs and responding with appropriate support

Below are just a few examples of what we offer for staff and students.

Promoting

The University hosts a number of groups for staff and support groups for students for networking and support, including LGBTQ+, Autism, Bereavement, and more.

We post regular blogs for staff and Be Well student blogs, to help promote this topic frequently to the community.

We have groups of people on campus who are there to promote wellbeing to their peers. These are the Staff Wellbeing Champions and for students we have Wellbeing Ambassadors.

Preventing

We offer courses on mental health and wellbeing for staff and student workshops and courses, to encourage people to take a proactive approach to their mental health.

To help people to stay aware of their health and wellbeing on a regular basis, we have the Be Well app for students. Staff can access free professional counselling 24/7 with Care first: in the moment support.

The staff Coaching programme and student Peer Mentoring schemes offer peer-to-peer support for our community.

Supporting

For staff we offer counselling via Care first: in the moment support, and for students we have our Wellbeing, Mental Health and Therapeutic services in Student Support. The SU also offer independent SU Advisors to give practical advice.

Students can use the 24/7 Be Well Talk Now service, and for staff there is the Education Support Partnership helpline, to speak to an adviser for support about any issues you may be facing.

All our Security staff are Mental Health First Aid trained and will support any member of our community in need 24/7.

reflections in a window of people walking on campus

Find out more

Find more information on the support you can access, visit our Staff Wellbeing and Student Wellbeing web pages.