BAM Mental Health and Wellbeing Project update

It was suggested at last year’s project Advisory Board that it would be worth carrying out a pulse survey to collect data. The design of the pulse check survey was informed by advice and materials available on the websites of Mental Health Charity MIND, What Works Wellbeing, The Office for National Statistics (ONS), HESA, The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), GLAAD and the UCU. Assistance was also given from ‘What Works Wellbeing’ with them giving in depth feedback on the design. Time was taken to consult with a range of various experts on the survey instrument. Ethical approval for the survey was received from The University of the West of Scotland and Queen Mary, The University of London. The survey was launched at last year’s conference and closed in November 2021.

The project team were delighted with the response. Rich data was provided in the completion of the survey and with a volume of open coded responses: over half of those who completed the survey provided detailed verbatims. The aggregated responses have been analysed and we are working through the analysis of segregated data (by e.g. gender, ethnicity, seniority, type of University). We have already undertaken a deep dive analysis of the open coded comments. We are near completion on the analysis, which already has provided us with a very rich picture of the reflections and experiences of academics, re: mental health and well-being policy and practice in their organisations.

The next step is that we are arranging to meet with the Project Steering Group, Advisory Board and link into BAM Executive.

We are anticipating having a final report launched at the 2022 conference with a presentation of findings in a PDW.