Aneeska Sohal: Student Mental Health

Opening Up About

Student Mental Health

Somerville alumna Aneeska Sohal (2020, MSc Modern South Asian Studies) works as a team lead for Mind and is a trustee for Student Minds. With support from Somerville, she launched Series 2 of her podcast All Things Mental Health during the pandemic, reaching thousands and opening up the conversation about student mental health. We caught up with her to find out about her work and why being open is so important.

We need to treat students as people with their own stories rather than as empty vessels

Tell us about your work on openness in mental health. As an undergraduate at York, I wanted to support students better with their mental health and wellbeing on campus. I chatted with a range of students from York for Series 1 of the podcast, with the aim that their reflections on maintaining their wellbeing would help other students, too. The reception was incredible, and I was thrilled to be able to develop the podcast further at Somerville by producing a second series, supported by a Thatcher Development Award and a Catherine Hughes Grant. Working in the midst of the Covid pandemic and the lockdowns, I wanted to try and unpack the different ways that people are leading the way in the field. I interviewed a whole range of experts: academics, policymakers, activists, campaigners, and psychologists. The series was a huge success, and was even picked up by King’s College London, who have now commissioned a third series.

What do we often get wrong when thinking about student mental health? We are often told our university years should be the best years of our lives. This puts a lot of pressure on students. Really, students need to operate within a university system that encourages them to develop their own mental health literacy and wellbeing toolkits, to navigate both the difficult days and the brilliant ones. What do you think openness means in this context? It’s so important to structure things to be open, inclusive and empathetic. I think university can often dehumanise students, with few spaces that motivate students to bring their whole selves to university and encourage them to be open and vulnerable. We need students to be seen holistically. Their studies are only one component of who they are - what about the rest? In one of the podcast episodes, I spoke to Dr Manuel Madriaga about how we need to treat students as people with their own stories rather than empty vessels. The work I am doing now with Mind on our Design for Equality project takes on the challenge of creating inclusive spaces in a different way by ensuring that our mental health services are designed to work for all communities, not just a white majority.

Back In Business

After two years of the pandemic and a year of temporary dining facilities, life has returned to our quad. Students once again relax and study on the grass, alumni return for events and the gardens look more verdant than ever. It’s good to be back.