#OpenUp, USI’s Mental Health Campaign

We are delighted to launch our new mental health campaign, Open Up. This campaign encourages all students to open up about their mental health – to friends and family, and also to professionals when needed. The aim of the campaign is to encourage students to normalise these conversations, and to check in with one another about their mental health. The theme of the campaign also links in with the notion of society opening up post-pandemic in an acknowledgement of the impact of the pandemic on student mental health, both during the pandemic and as society reopens.

Stats from the USI Student Mental Health Report 2019 show the following:

34.3% of respondents who had not sought any help on or off campus for their mental health had severe to extremely severe depression levels

39.5% of respondents who had not sought any help on or off campus for their mental health had severe to extremely severe anxiety levels

29.9% of respondent who had not sought any help on or off campus for their mental health had severe to extremely severe stress levels.

As part of this campaign we are delighted to announce that we will be travelling to campuses around the country to meet with students and promote the campaign. Keep an eye on our social media to find out where we are going and when.

We are also adding new resources to our website in line with the new campaign. These include:

We will update this list as we add new resources.

We are proud to collaborate with Mental Health Ireland as part of this campaign. Their national campaign is called ‘Hello How Are You’ and more information can be found here.

We were excited to be able to launch this campaign on Monday 21st March in a combined in-person/online event. You can read more about the launch here.