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University of Melbourne develops postgrad peer support network.
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Work
PhD to PhWe
smarter, not harder’ may be a hackneyed adage, but the University of Melbourne is putting it to use. It has developed Write Smarter: Feel Better – a mental health and productivity program for graduate research students.
By offering communal writing sessions and mental health workshops, it hopes to make students feel less alone.
The peer-led program was developed by the Cooperative Research Centre( CRC) for Mental Health, in conjunction with students, in response to increasing awareness of mental health issues among PhD cohorts.
“ The program started as a way to connect our students in different states and gradually evolved into a model where graduate students can focus on wellbeing, sharing experiences and supporting each other,” CRC for Mental Health head of education Melanie Carew explained.
All student facilitators receive mental health first-aid training prior to joining the program, and regularly consult with staff.
Karra Harrington, a PhD student in psychology and program co-developer, shared her reflections on her participation in a Write Smarter: Feel Better group.
“ I always leave a session having made progress on my thesis or journal articles.
“ More importantly, I get to share and hear from others about the ups and downs that come during any PhD.
“ Our group has given advice and shared our perspectives on areas as diverse as data analysis, networking at conferences, dealing with parental leave and the additional challenges faced by international students.”
She summarised her experiences as“ one of the most rewarding aspects” of her PhD. ■
Teaching the good life
Yale’ s most popular class now available online for free to all.
Maslow’ s hierarchy of needs dictates that there are baseline necessities for human satisfaction. Food, shelter and relationships are most critical. Then there’ s self-esteem, and, if you’ re lucky, self-actualisation: the fulfilment of one’ s potential.
But happiness isn’ t as simple as scaling a five-level pyramid. That’ s why someone whose life appears perfect on paper can feel depressed, or another who lives in relative poverty can be grateful for what they have.
With the emergence of the cult of self-improvement has come a rise in the academic study of happiness, which finds nuance between and within the pyramid layers. This was patent in the fact that 1200 – nearly a quarter of all Yale University undergraduates – enrolled in Psychology and the Good Life when it opened in January, making it the most popular Yale class ever.
Psychology Professor Laurie Santos, who teaches the class, suspects that so many students want to take it because of the“ mental health crisis” sweeping campuses.
But mental ill-health isn’ t limited to college kids. According to the World Health Organization, over 300 million people suffer from depression – the leading cause of disability worldwide. In Australia, approximately one in five people will experience a mental illness annually.
Perhaps acknowledging these rates, in addition to the desire for happiness knowledge, the Yale class has now been made available for free, to anyone, via online course provider Coursera.
“[ It ] overviews what psychological science says about happiness,” the Coursera page states.
Unlike many university subjects, however, it exceeds theory.“ The purpose of the course is to not only learn what psychological research says about what makes us happy but also to put those strategies into practice.” ■
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