Martina Adamcikova and Professor Cathrine Brun, Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment
Recent research reveals that humanitarian workers face multiple mental health and psychosocial challenges, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and burnout. There is limited mental health and wellbeing support available for students entering jobs in crisis settings, such as in the humanitarian field. More importantly, mental health of frontline workers has to be prioritised in the context of Covid-19. Our vision is to move from treatment of mental health issues to prevention. Wellbeing of our students and aspiring humanitarian workers is top priority on our agenda and our aim is to offer students dedicated training to build their resilience and enhance mental health before starting their career. With funding from Brookes Teaching Innovation Project (BTIP), we are designing a new module under development studies that aims to prepare students mentally and emotionally for their work in emergency settings. In the poster we will present why such a module is needed, the process of designing the module and the main components of the proposed module.