Dr Nicola Reavley

University of Melbourne, Vic
Mental Health Research 2011

Dr Nicola Reavley is a Research Fellow at Orygen Youth Health Research Centre (OYHRC), University of Melbourne. She works on a number of projects, including  the MindWise project, which aims to evaluate the effects of a multifaceted mental health literacy intervention in further education students.

Prior to working at OYHRC she worked at the Centre for Rheumatic Diseases, University of Melbourne where her role was to manage the development and pilot testing of the Australian WorkHealth Program - Arthritis. During this period she was also a Chief Investigator on the Victorian Department of Health-funded Review of Workplace-Based Diabetes Prevention Initiatives project which was successfully concluded in June 2009 and was used to inform the Council of Australian Government (COAG) workplace health policy.

SUMMARY OF PROJECT:
 
Guidelines for tertiary education institutions on how to support students with mental health problems
The aim of the project is to develop guidelines for tertiary education institutions on how to support students with mental health problems in order that they achieve successful educational outcomes. This will be done by reviewing the evidence on strategies for this and assessing expert consensus on which strategies are appropriate.

The latter will be done through a formal consultation process with the members of two expert panels. The first will consist of professionals in the field and will include disability liaison unit staff, student counsellors, and researchers on student mental health. The second panel will consist of consumer advocates who have had experience of being a tertiary student with a mental health problem.

The strategies will be published as a set of guidelines and made freely available to tertiary education institutions that may use them to develop policies and procedures for facilitation of good educational outcomes for students with mental health problems.

FINAL REPORT:
This project was specifically aimed at improving practice in tertiary education institutions as they support students with mental health problems. The guidelines will be made freely available to all Australian tertiary education institutions and it is hoped that they will be of practical benefit to all such institutions as they can be drawn on by professionals and workers from a wide array of organisations, including disability support units, counselling services and youth mental health services. The guidelines have the capacity to inform practice and policy development in all tertiary education institutions. 
The project was an ‘Australian-first’ and possibly a ‘World-first’. As stated above, this project was specifically aimed at improving practice in tertiary education institutions as they support students with mental health problems. The guidelines will be made freely available to all Australian tertiary education institutions and it is hoped that they will be of practical benefit to all such institutions as they can be drawn on by professionals and workers from a wide array of organisations, including disability support units, counselling services and youth mental health services. The guidelines have the capacity to inform practice and policy development in all tertiary education institutions. 
The guidelines were launched at the 2011 National Tertiary Student Mental Health summit. They have also been sent by mail to all Australian universities and TAFEs and published in an article in the Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association (ANZSSA). They are also freely available at the Student Mental Health Wiki (www.studentmentalhealthwiki.org).