According to the World Health Organisation “Mental Health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community”. Mental health issues represent a growing problem among students and academics in Higher Education Institutions, with a number of studies attesting to a degradation of mental health among students in higher education and the necessity to encourage the adoption of mental health action plans and the awareness and training of all staff on mental health policy. Student well-being has become a growing concern with universities broadly acknowledging the importance of implementing proper tools to support students in distress or at-risk. Support structures for students, academic and non-academic staff are often confronted with emergency situations involving the university community. Having a structured action plan is the best way to ensure that everyone involved is well prepared to deal with the situation. To guarantee that measures are adequate and effective, it is necessary to ensure that the entire community has access to information and training on how to act in case of crisis situations. It is necessary to prepare and reach as many people as possible to provide the most effective response. The more people who are properly informed about the procedures to follow, the more people will be able to react effectively in cases of crisis situations. Planning ahead and working with all campus stakeholders in defining an effective crisis plan and investing in people training are two very important ways to solve the problem. In this sense, SOS-Digital aims to define at-risk behaviour, identify resources available to students who are exhibiting, or are affected, by at-risk behaviour and set out the reporting procedures for those who observe at-risk behaviour. Furthermore, the project aims at showing universities and staff how to effectively deal with students at risk, by providing simulation videos of real cases. The establishment of SOS-Digital Platform will allow easy access to support the campus community and responds to the importance of creating a strong, supportive outreach system for students. The project will provide support, guidance and resources for staff and universities in reporting and assisting with cases of students at risk. The most innovative aspect of this project is to provide visual support and show how to deal with students in distress or in crisis, by simulation. The target group is the academic community, mainly staff and faculty members that need a consistent response system and a guide that provides them with information/training that will prepare them to support a student in distress and address a crisis scenario on campus. The main result of the SOS-Digital Project will be the existence of a Training Platform they will provide visual support on how to help students in distress or at-risk and the existence of a ask for help mechanism integrated in the Platform. The main impacts of the project will be: • Development of new and innovative methods to respond to students in distress or at-risk; • Decrease the number of students in distress; • Improved awareness about benefits of online video-based applications; • Development of skills in dealing with students in distress; • Increased students well-being; • Enhancement of the well-being of academic environment; • Increased awareness around the subject of mental health and students in distress; • Contribution for the international discussion around the theme of mental health and students in distress.
Not applicable.