Did you know that around 210,000 Australian university students experience mental health illness every year?

Universities offer many support services, but our recent research at Curtin University shows many of its students are unaware of them, or just don't know who they can ask to find out. Among them, online students report higher levels of isolation, placing them at a further risk. 

If you were concerned about someone’s mental health, would you know how to help? If not, we believe we can change that. We want to help you, to help others and create a more supportive learning environment. 

Mental Health First Aid® (MHFA™) is an evidence-based training resource which helps participants recognise mental health illness warning signs in others, how/where to get help and provides great strategies to use to support people you are concerned about. More specifically, the Blended Online MHFA Tertiary course teaches university students how they can provide assistance to a peer that they believe may be experiencing or developing a mental health problem.

At Curtin University, we want to mandate the already subsidised MHFA training for teaching staff with direct student contact and subsidise tertiary specific MHFA for students. 

• Standard MHFA: https://mhfa.com.au/courses/public/types/standardedition4
• Blended Online MHFA Tertiary: https://mhfa.com.au/courses/public/types/blendedonlinetertiarypublic

We are a group of health promotion students advocating for Curtin University students mental health by gathering signatures to support our cause. Your support will accompany our policy brief, which will be presented to policy makers at Curtin University. By creating strong support networks both on-campus and online, we can help support all Curtin University student’s mental health. 

We need your voice to make this fight louder!

Please contact us if you would like to see our policy brief/research, require additional information or would like to address any concerns. 

• tneale.maher@student.curtin.edu.au
• mary-jane.gray@student.curtin.edu.au
• jennifer.haywood@student.curtin.edu.au