Wellbeing

3,422+ Total student engagements

The Wellbeing portfolio provides students with individual and community support to manage their overall wellbeing in a manner that supports academic performance. Wellbeing services support students in developing a proactive mindset to achieve optimal wellbeing, and generating targeted network support to facilitate and nurture peer support connections. With focused support, Guild Wellbeing empowers students to share lived experiences and offer others care and empathy, nurturing a student community of lifelong learners.

The portfolio was further expanded in 2022 with newly developed mental health projects, which focused on enhancing proactive and preventative wellbeing. REACH was introduced as a fourpart weekly workshop series that included self-coaching, mindset awareness, strengths, values, confidence, and commitment content. Feedback for this program across the trials was positive with some students reporting it was transformational in its ability to re-engage them in university life and reverse negative downward spirals. Ultimately, the four-week format proved difficult for many students to accommodate alongside their existing life and university commitments. This however resulted in a repackaging of the content into smaller single workshops that could be completed through a modular approach to be more accessible to students as an evolution of the trial to be continued through 2023.

Another new program launched was the Re-centre Series. This offered students practical introductions into new ways to enhance their everyday wellbeing such as yoga, mindfulness, and journaling. The trial of these new initiatives attracted 184 attendees and were supported by a range of online videos through the new ‘Zen Zone’ section of the Guild website. Many of the sessions were also attended and supported by the Wellness Warrior volunteers, who continue to act as a highly visible force of peer-to-peer engagement across campus. In addition to being trained to respond to challenging conversations, the Wellness Warriors also managed to engage thousands of students with positive wellbeing and anti-stigma messaging through a range of activities and initiatives.

Other existing services that saw a rise in demand throughout 2022 were Wellbeing Check-Ins (53% annual increase), Crisis Care Packs (100% annual increase) and Emergency Accommodation (121% annual increase). These services all peaked due to internal referrals from previously mentioned programs, as well as an unprecedented accommodation shortage impacting all areas of the Gold Coast. Low housing availability and inflated prices were caused by an influx of people moving to the Gold Cost post COVID-19, as well as a high number of second year international students arriving to the Gold Coast for the first time in addition to new intakes. This strained Wellbeing’s personalised support services, particularly accommodation, as the number of requests was also compounded by the increased length of support required to re-connect with longer term financial and accommodation support options. These services will be closely monitored in 2023 as the portfolio continues to broaden out our wider mental health and wellbeing support services.