7 End-of-course summary
During this course, you have become better equipped to support your adult learners with positive mental health and wellbeing. You also know how to ensure adult learners receive the right support at the right time through active signposting to support services and resources. Your learning enables you to recognise how adult learners’ poor mental health impacts on their learning experience, and as a result of completing this course you feel more confident to engage in discussions with them about their mental health needs.
You are more aware of stigmatised behaviours and common misconceptions about adult learners’ mental health in the education sector and have developed skills which help you to reduce stigma in educational practice. Importantly, you have learned a range of appropriate coping strategies which support positive wellbeing and mental health and had opportunity to reflect on the prioritisation of self-care for you as an educator. Your learning will undoubtedly support you in both your professional and personal life, and we wish you very good mental health and wellbeing for the future.
Box _unit9.8.1 Additional resources
Now that you have come to the end of this course here are some additional resources that you may wish to utilise.
In support of Mental Health Awareness Week, which is held annually, The Open University co-produced two BBC Ideas short films, which are available to view on the award-winning BBC Ideas website.
- The first, How to help someone struggling with their mental health, features OU academic Will Murcott and outlines five useful approaches to make mental health discussions easier and more helpful.
- The second, How does therapy work?, explores how ‘talking therapy’ can help with a range of issues and how it actually helps.
The Charlie Waller Trust have produced a range of online learning resources for college and university staff to support students experiencing poor mental health that can be found on their website. The Trust have also designed an additional resource specifically for university educators involved in developing mental health strategy and policy, the University Mental Health Policy Toolkit, which provides a comprehensive review of existing evidence in a range of areas related to mental health policy and practice. (Please note, you will need to register your details with the Trust to download this resource.)