University Mental Health Day and PGR Wellbeing Support Groups

Today is University Mental Health Day and we hope that all PGRs and those who support them at the OU will take a moment to prioritise their wellbeing.

It's a good day to announce that January's pilot peer PGR Wellbeing Support Group had good feedback from participants, and we plan to run further cohorts from Summer/Autumn this year. 

If you're interested in participating in a future cohort, please fill out this online form: Expression of interest for 8-week wellbeing peer suppot group

About the PGR Wellbeing Support Groups

The online weekly sessions were facilitated by a Mental Health Advisor and Academic, and covered topics such as self-care, imposter syndrome, time management, communication and criticism, isolation and future planning.

Some of the comments from participants were:

"The PhD world is a distinctive, scary and difficult journey; this gives an emotional road map and enabled me to better prepare for the path ahead – a kind of emotional upgrade for my mental health where kind and considerate deeply listening people helped to notice and pay attention. There is me and there is the PhD.  Thank you for making me stronger and more relaxed about the adventure ahead."

"I think the peer aspect is really important- hearing that others feel like you and how they manage that.  I think that the sessions on self compassion and self care were good."

"I found the structure of check-ins/check-outs bookending open discussion on particular themes very beneficial in enabling the natural flow of conversation and giving everyone the time and space to formulate their thoughts, share their experience, and react to what others had shared. The themes were broad, but that allowed us to cover a lot. What made it really special was the kindness, honesty, sincerity, and vulnerability that everybody brought to the group. I feel like this was really nurtured by the way in which the group had been brought together and was being facilitated." 

"I really appreciated the facilitation of the group. It felt safe, inclusive, and caring. I also really appreciated hearing from the perspective of a PhD supervisor at the OU."

"I think the facilitators were very experienced and effectively managed the sessions no matter what issues were raised or discussed. What I liked was that they took time to acknowledge each person’s issue when we spoke, this made it easy to open up and speak up."

Other wellbeing resources

Student wellbeing | Graduate School Network (open.ac.uk)

Disability support | Graduate School Network (open.ac.uk)

Fees, funding and cost of living | Graduate School Network (open.ac.uk)

Community | Graduate School Network (open.ac.uk)