The MTU Wellbeing Podcast
The MTU Wellbeing Podcast
Healthy Campus- Fostering a Supportive University Environment
This episode focuses on "A Healthy MTU" initiative, emphasizing its efforts to improve health and wellbeing for students and staff. The discussion includes strategies to address common challenges, such as financial stress and the importance of social connections in enhancing the university experience.
Guests Bio:
Dr Andrea Bickerdike
Andrea is a Lecturer in Health & Wellbeing, and health researcher at MTU. Her research interests include health promotion, and the design/delivery of interventions that enhance population health. She has a particular interest in all approaches that aim to maximise the health and wellbeing of university students and staff. Having completed her PhD in campus health promotion, Andrea is Co-Director of ‘A Healthy MTU’ (MTU’s Healthy Campus Programme). Since 2023, she is also the MTU Director of an online MSc Programme in Health & Wellbeing (delivered jointly with UCC).
Siobhan Griffin
Siobhan is a lecturer on the Health, Sport & Exercise Sciences course on the Kerry campus. She lectures on a number of health studies topics including health and wellbeing & behaviour change interventions. She has a background in corporate health promotion and spent a number of years as a wellness specialist in Apple. Following this she gained an M.Ed from Mary Immaculate College (MIC) and began her journey in the community education sector, working with marginalised community groups and early school leavers. Siobhan is passionate about preventative healthcare, lifestyle medicine, as well as, diversity and inclusion.
Conversation highlights include:
• Discussing the goals of "A Healthy MTU" initiative
• Understanding the challenges students face during their transition to higher education • Discussing actionable strategies to enhance sleep and lifestyle habits
• Recognizing staff wellbeing in the academic environment
• The vision for integrated health and wellbeing in MTU's curriculum
• Upcoming events and opportunities for engagement in health initiatives
Links:
https://hea.ie/policy/health-and-wellbeing-landing-page/healthy-campus-landing-page/
https://www.healthpromotingcampuses.org/okanagan-charter
Email: ahealtymtu@mtu.ie
Hello and you're very welcome to the MTU Wellbeing Podcast. In today's episode, I have a conversation about a healthy MTU. This is a multi-campus health promotion initiative that aims to maximise the health and wellbeing of the entire MTU community, both students and staff alike. I was joined by Dr Andrea Bickerdike and Siobhan Griffin. Andrea is a lecturer in health and wellbeing in the Department of Sport, leisure and Childhood Studies and a health researcher at MTU. Her research interests include health promotion and the design delivery of interventions that enhance population health, with a particular focus on university staff and students.
Speaker 1:Andrea is the co-director of a healthy MTU MTU's Healthy Campus Program. Siobhan is a lecturer in health and sport and exercise science course on the Kerry Campus. She lectured on several health topics, including health and well-being and behaviour change interventions. She has a background in corporate health promotion and spent several years as a wellness specialist in Apple motion and spent several years as a wellness specialist in Apple. Siobhan is passionate about preventative healthcare, lifestyle medicine, as well as diversity and inclusion. I started the episode by asking Andrea and Siobhan to outline some of the activities they are involved in MTU, particularly from a health and wellbeing perspective.
Speaker 2:So my role involves a number of different aspects at MTU and I really like that variety. So I'm a lecturer in health and well-being but part of that role also involves working on the university's health promotion initiative at the MTU, which I know we'll get to a little bit later. But then part of the role of being an academic involves research as well. So in terms of the day-to-day roles it can involve teaching a number of modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level, exploring health and well-being, researching then various aspects of health and well-being and getting involved kind of in innovative and applied studies that aim to do that, and then, of course, on a practical level then implementing initiatives for students and staff and in the university. So no, two days are the same, but I like the variety and we're probably seeing more and more opportunities as well to work with external partners and to travel, because I suppose health and well-being is everybody's priority really. So it's an exciting area and a really important area I think to be in.
Speaker 1:Thanks for that, andrea. Nice summary of what you're involved in, siobhan, I suppose same question to you what are you involved in? What does your day look like, the various activities you're engaging in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I suppose my main role really is you know, I started as a lecturer in health and well-being and I predominantly teach first years. So I teach first years health and well-being but I also have a fourth year module in behaviour change. So I suppose what I love about well-being but I also have a fourth year module in behavior change, so I suppose what I love about my role is that I see students at the start of their journey and again at the end of their journey and I find that that kind of. I find it so interesting and I do, as Andrea was saying, that research is an important part of our role.
Speaker 2:So I do a lot of, I suppose, more informal research for my own kind of interest, in my own way of approaching health and well-being. But I look at, you know, what students find challenging and stuff when they, when they, when they land into first year, and how we can ease that transition from second level into higher level. So I do a lot of work around that and also it was this year my first year and getting involved in the healthy campus project. So that's really really exciting to have that split between academic work and, you know, help, promotion work, which I have a bit of a background in. So it's nice to be back doing that, that kind of work again, really exciting yeah, thanks, yvonne.
Speaker 1:You said something nice, I think, about starting the journey of the students. You know, and I suppose we need to remind ourselves that, as lecturers and people work in higher education and involved in research and the various roles that students join us in first year and then have really important transition into fourth year and maybe into masters and phd and beyond, and so, yeah, it's I'm glad you kind of mentioned that kind of journey and how we're involved to support that. So, from maybe your experience, yvonne, like you mentioned the challenges that students might have on that journey, what do you think are the currently, I suppose, what are the main challenges that students are having, you know, maybe in MTU and in higher education in general?
Speaker 2:yeah, um, I, I suppose I run a program. It's called Surviving First Year Bootcamp and it's where the fourth year students teach the first years and as part of that we get the first years to identify what are the things that they're anticipating will be challenges for them over their first year in university. And we see common themes come up. This is a third year, so we see common themes come up. This is the third year, so we see common themes coming up year on year and those themes are often the logistics of college life, so finding where their classrooms are managing, you know, studying and having fun and also as well. An interesting one that comes up is eating eating well on a budget. So often, especially, I suppose, because I suppose the nature of working in the health, sport and exercise science. We have a lot of sports players and they're quite conscious now of what they're fueling their bodies with, but trying to do that on a budget can be a little bit of a challenge.
Speaker 1:That's been identified by students to do that on a budget can be a little bit of a challenge. That's been identified by students. That's a yeah. Does that module? Is that something new or is that? Has that been in place for a while? I really like that idea of you know fourth years teaching first years. Is that a new model? Siobhan?
Speaker 2:No, so it's part of the health and well-being module for first years and it's part of the adult learning module with fourth years. So myself and my colleague, teresa Richardson, kind of collaborate on it to run it. So you know, it can be, it can be difficult, timetabling and things like that and or the setup of it can be a little bit difficult, but it is so worth it in terms of what the what both groups of students get for it. It's tied in with the fourth year's assessment as well. So it gives them hands-on experience of facilitation and teaching and for the first years it gives them a familiar face in a fourth year and it also they learn from the fourth year's experience over their four years experience in college. So it's that peer learning approach which I think is really really important when we're teaching about health and well-being that my perspective and my view of health and well-being is going to be very different to students yes, that's nice, nice model.
Speaker 1:They're learning from each other. Um, andrea siobhan mentioned there maybe about the day-to-day management of students as a challenge and, and she particularly highlighted maybe the nutritional side of things and eating well on a budget. From your perspective, there is there any challenges that that you see?
Speaker 2:I think there there's many challenges and I think as well, um, the definition of you know your typical student is is broadening all of the time, and it's it's. One of the really great things I about higher education is that access to higher education is broadening. Lifelong learning, I think, is becoming more possible and accessible to people in ways that maybe in previous decades it wasn't. So I think the challenges are complex. The other thing to say as well and I totally agree with Siobhan in terms of we all probably need a mentor, but that mentor has to be close enough to you so that it's relatable and someone challenging. It's really difficult.
Speaker 2:It's the highest, you know some of the highest academic awards that people can attain level eight, level nine, level 10 in some cases.
Speaker 2:So the expectations can be high and at the same time, for many students it's a time maybe of financial pressures for many students, as Siobhan mentioned, living away from home for the first time.
Speaker 2:So it's a really kind of pressure cooker, I think, for for a lot of a lot of students, and we probably see that in in the classroom every day.
Speaker 2:But at the same time, in terms of mature students and in terms of adult learners, there's a whole array of things that come along with that as well balancing home life, work life and also educational demands too, um, I mean, we could go into all of all of the data and all of the the challenges that we know exist, but whether it's healthy eating or or physical activity or alcohol or whatever it might be, I think we need to sometimes ask why, and I think certainly a lot of the work that we've done has unveiled a real link between financial pressures and markers of well-being, time pressures and markers of well-being students under real difficulty with accommodation. That's a huge one. That's coming out in our most recent data. So those struggles are very real and they're probably they need broader action across sector level, but I think universities can certainly lead the way in shining a light on that and advocating and being that voice, um, for our students. So I I'm not sure if that's really answered your question particularly, but it's.
Speaker 1:It's a very complex, complex thing no, but I think it's important to recognize that because it is, the expectations are there and people come from different backgrounds and different needs and, yeah, and they want to do their best and they get her too. You know it's an exciting time for them and there's a lot of pressures. And you, you mentioned, um, the research, the different maybe facets around the transfer and alcohol and all that, and we will share some of that research with people that they can engage in their own time. So, you know, you've both highlighted some of the challenges there. If I might go to you, andre, with this one, then just what? What maybe would be one, one nugget or one bit of advice or things that you might say to students that are in in higher education that might have them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm really glad you asked that question, because I think all too often the messaging is don't do this, this is risky, this will result in X, y and Z, and it's very kind of sort of pathogenic from its perspective. But there are many things that on a daily basis people can do and all of those little actionable steps add up and they can be quite substantial. One area at the moment and it's probably to the forefront of my mind, because we're becoming more active in examining the role and function of sleep on our mental, physical, cognitive decision making, of sleep on our mental, physical, cognitive decision making, and it's fascinating. It's a really fascinating area to study and we have a fantastic PhD candidate on the team at the moment looking at that. But it's actually. It's very interesting, even at a very basic level, keeping an eye on your sleeping patterns, monitoring what they they are.
Speaker 2:I've done this myself where actually I've made an effort just to to measure and monitor my sleep duration, to try to, um, think about my sleep quality, my sleep hygiene, what I'm doing in those hours before bed, um, and I've noticed a real difference in my mood, in my decision making, and it's something that I just think, it's something everybody does, so it's something maybe everyone can look at.
Speaker 2:The other thing and again, thinking about this earlier was looking at the impact that devices and exposure to devices can have on our circadian rhythm and on our sleeping patterns. And one act, one simple thing and it's a bad habit I have, but it's looking at the phone first thing in the morning before you've even gotten out of bed, and that's a habit I'm really, I'm really working on, but it's something that um can make a huge difference, because, um, you know when you've woken up, if you're immediately exposing yourself to information, to a bright light, to a stress response, then of course that has a knock-on effect for the whole rest of the day. So I like simple, actionable um things that that people, people, can do, but that certainly is one looking at sleep patterns yeah, and I think we all like simple, actionable things as well.
Speaker 1:So, siobhan, have you any simple, actionable behaviors you think that might help the students listening?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think kind of. I suppose, even building on from Andrea's point about the phones and technology we can be very reliant on technology for socializing now through social media and things like that, and I think it's really, really important for students to get out there, get involved in their clubs, their societies and get meeting people face to face and doing activities that involve social connection. I really really feel quite strongly about that social connection piece and that, you know, gaining a sense of belonging in university is going to be like, is going to really enhance the journey and, in some cases, you know, be an absolute necessity for the journey to, you know, to go all the way. So that social connection piece joining your clubs and your societies, putting yourself out there and, I suppose, finding your tribe- so and just I might just just summarize those few points there, guys, just in terms of this.
Speaker 1:And so I think the sleep is definitely some. Keep an eye on your sleep and trying, you know, mend that accordingly, or just that, and see the impact that might have in your well-being and your productivity and your feelings of, you know, be good health. Look at the phone and maybe see can you put it to the side and not rely on it as first thing in the morning, and you know the stress that might become as a result of that. So that's something that maybe our students could try. And then you know you find you're talking about kind of the finding the tribe and and connecting with people in the social networks and the importance of that. So there are a few nice nuggets there for our students to think about. The Healthy Campus, healthy Internew that we talked about, I suppose there is an idea there from students' perspective, but it's obviously also from the staff's perspective. So what are the challenges you're seeing with staff around, kind of staff well-being, and what are the challenges there that you're seeing? And, siobhan, I might go to you first in this instance.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I suppose, with staff I mean as a staff member myself the demands of the job, you know there's always more work to be done and there's only so many hours in the day and I think we all kind of feel that at times, and I know, certainly from a personal perspective, you know, I can often maybe get caught up in, um, uh, you know, I suppose maybe feeling a little bit stressed about things that are often outside of my control, and I find sometimes that, looking at situations that maybe I'm doing a bit of ruminating over, looking at them and saying, okay, um, you know what's within my control, what can I influence or what do I need to let go of?
Speaker 2:Um is really important um, and then kind of, I suppose, looking at what the tasks I have to do in the day, prioritizing um things, so having a high priority, medium priority and you know what can maybe wait, and making sure for me personally that there is some form of movement prioritized um, because for me, for me personally, I need that. I need that to clear my head to you know. And often it's just a walk around the campus, it's, it's a one loop, it's a 10 minute thing, it's not a big exercising program or anything like that. It's just very simple. But for me it helps me to just clear my head and then come back and refocus again. So that's really I find that works for me. Um, and then eating foods that I know are going to give me energy, rather than you know I suppose putting me in a bit of a 3 pm slump as such. Um, and that that was it for me.
Speaker 1:That's kind of monitoring my caffeine intake as well yeah, and I really like the way I think we've moved, unfortunately, towards a structured kind of physical activity exercise space. So I really like the way you've talked about just movement and getting out and getting your 10 minutes and and the value and the importance of that. Andrea, from your perspective, you know what a challenges are you seeing with staff and what advice might you give or how would you say to staff that are maybe thinking about changing or adapting their health and wellbeing strategies or behaviours?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think from the first instance I think almost with my academic lens or through an academic lens universities are really interesting places because you have large cohorts of staff who oftentimes stay and and are in those roles for quite prolonged periods of time. So from a positive side of things, the potential impact that a university can have on staff health and well-being is substantial. At the same time, we know and again this is really kind of from an academic sense, but I think we'll probably all identify with it we know that higher education has been under pressure really over the last number of decades. There can be resourcing issues, wider societal impacts and so on and everything is probably a little bit more pressurized now and everything has been under pressure and I think that, compounded then with things like the pandemic and all of these kind of external pressures, have had a very real impact. So that's come from the academic side of things. We know actually that academic staff in particular are a high risk cohort for things like burnout things. Like you know, just as Siobhan has mentioned, being very invested in the role you know, having real kind of pastoral care type roles a lot of the time and sometimes without offsetting that with self-care and self-management, it can be a risk of leaning into burnout. So we know that's a very real issue. Stress is an issue, but also it's an interesting one, and again this comes out in our data. We oftentimes consider students and staff very separately, but a of the health related challenges are the same, and sometimes the staff, but we're not, so we're not so different, really, after all.
Speaker 2:A couple of things then in terms of going back to the actionable steps. That's, the academic is one side, but I think understanding or trying to understand yourself and everyone's so different, and even understanding things like are you introverted or extroverted? Are you someone that gains energy from? Do you need some recovery time, maybe after a large meeting or after a big class? Other people are more extroverted.
Speaker 2:So, I think, understanding that. And then the final thing is there's really interesting work out there at the moment about whether some people really like to segment work and life and they like to keep those things separate. Other people, for lots of reasons, it's less stressful to integrate and maybe to blur those boundaries a little more and to be more flexible. But even understanding that about yourself and then trying to put those measures in place to cater for your needs, because in large organisations like universities, everyone will be different and sometimes we need to understand ourselves. So they would be some of the challenges and, potentially, things that people can do and there's lots of resources and work out there on that that we can link to afterwards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think we'll do that and I think it's important as well. I think it's great that there's a staff focus here. Mtu the merger's happening and it's continued. You know, as in you know, it has been a challenging phase for a lot of staff. I think it's important we recognize that, because it's really challenging time but also a very exciting time and I think you know even the whole MTU framework and healthy campus that's been pushed. It shows that that the university is invested in supporting people and helping them get the most out of themselves. So, um, yeah, thanks to you both just for highlighting that. Um, I mentioned the healthy MTU and I know you're both really passionate about it and heavily involved in it and really excited by it. Um, so I suppose I just maybe wanted to, maybe I'll go to you and there first. Maybe, for those maybe not familiar with a healthy mtu, maybe can you tell us a little bit more about it no problem.
Speaker 2:Problem In a nutshell really it is a multi-campus, so a whole university health promotion initiative and it aims to, of course, maximise the health and wellbeing of all students and all staff, but really to support the health and wellbeing the entire MTU community, I think, to achieve their potential. So it's effectively a campus health promotion initiative and it is maybe an initiative through which then to highlight and deliver events, programmes, policies and so on across the university that, in turn, we hope will enhance health and wellbeing. Our team has grown over the last year or so, which has been fantastic. We've been supported with funding through the Technological Sector Advancement Fund and MTU has really committed to that and committed to expanding our team and I think that shows a real positive aspect of the university that it's actually committing substantial funding to expanding this program and really committing to its staff and its community and you know people and community, like it refers to in the university strategic plan. So that's kind of what I held.
Speaker 2:The MTU is it? It evolved basically, just to give you a bit of context, I first started at MTU as a postgraduate student, going back to maybe 2016 or so, and at that time I was studying kind of the health and well-being of students and staff and aiming to set up a campus health promotion initiative. And at that time a short time after that actually the department of health got together kind of stakeholders from different universities excuse me when I was one of those but we got together and we drafted what ultimately later on became the HEA Healthy Campus Charter and Framework, and that charter and framework is something that all HEIs have signed up to and it puts on paper, I think, a set of commitments that each university will step up and try to create culture of well-being. And through that then, and I think through that leadership of the HEA, we've been able then to expand and we've been able then to secure funding, like TSAF that I mentioned earlier. So in a nutshell, that's kind of where it's come from and what it is now.
Speaker 1:And it is really important, andrea, that it is coming from the top support, exactly, and it is really nice to have a framework. You know that's in the chart that people can commit to and it's there. You know, are we? Are we meet these guidelines? Are we doing what we've set out to do? You know, and I think that's really important to have those, and, siobhan, from your perspective, I suppose, um, how did you get involved with the Healthy Campus framework and anything? To add from there yeah.
Speaker 2:So I suppose, just to add, because I think Andrea is often very humble when she speaks about this and I suppose, coming into this health promotion initiative, I suppose, to give credit where credit is due she's done a huge amount of research in the lead up to this. We have massive amounts of data that you know you couldn't wish for going into a job like this. So we got off to a really really solid, strong footing really, thanks to Andrea and the research that she completed in the years leading up to this initiative actually getting off the ground and a team being resourced. So that's, you know, it's really, really important work. And just to just sort of just recognize that, um, I got involved. Um, yeah, I got it. I got involved. Um, I seen the, the advertisement for this account, and I said, oh yeah, would I, would I go, but I'd like to go back and do her promotion again. I was tossing it up and down and people were saying it to me you're going to apply for that. And I thought, I don't know, I'm happy teaching, I like to my health and well-being and you know I'm settled and I was last minute through in the application and I think I was very I kind of. I kind of said I'm not great with statistics and numbers and data, but I'm good on the ground and I'm good with people. And I remember reading it out to my husband and he said I don't think you should say that and it was last minute I put it in and I couldn't. Honestly, I think it was the best move I've ever made in my career because it's giving me. It's giving me so it's opened my eyes to.
Speaker 2:You know running, I suppose, a promotion initiative in a very, very different setting. I would have worked in corporate, I would have worked with huge budgets and you know a lot of. You know it was very, very easy to do things big. And I suppose, when you're, when you're working in the public sector, the funding is limited and you have to be creative and you have to. You know you have to lobby for support from everyone around you and you have to be on top of, you know, applying for extra funding from different places.
Speaker 2:And I suppose that that experience is absolutely invaluable and and especially for my teaching, because I teach in this area and I have to, you know, um, you know, give students a good rounded view of what help promotion is, what it is to work on a help promotion initiative and it's just, I suppose it's keeping me in the game, such that I'm not, you know, forgetting what it's like to to run these things and to to be the organizer and the event manager and the promoter, all in one um. So, yeah, so it's great, it's great to be back in it. I'm couldn't, I suppose I couldn't be happier to be in the, in the position I'm in, um, and, yeah, I'm glad I threw that application in last minute and it sounds like we've got the two best people in MTU to lead this out.
Speaker 1:Andrea, you want to come in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just to acknowledge, I think, with the recent funding support that we've received, what we've been able to do for the first time ever, I think, is to build our team. So we have Siobhan who's leading out on the Kerry campuses, we're able to put kind of project leads in place. We have our colleague, lauren Muchikamaro, who has just started as our operational coordinator. We have Luke Hanna, who's joined the team as a senior researcher. We have another colleague here, lisa Harold, and so our team is building and what we'd love to do is to continue to grow, as Siobhan said.
Speaker 2:You know there's really you can have meaningful impact, I think, when you collaborate, and sometimes that's out of necessity and sometimes that's out of cooling, resourcing and finding synergies and so on, but the rewards from that can be huge, um, and and the buy-in, and we're so grateful, I think, to colleagues across the university today who have supported initiatives, who already implement fantastic programs and initiatives, and what what we hope we can do then is give a platform, give extra support, align the initiative maybe with the kind of broader brand as such of healthy campus, of the hea healthy campus charter and framework. So, um, just to say, you know, as as as kind of a member of the team. Um, we're delighted to be able to build, to build this and to have colleagues like siobhan and the others uh, join us, and with health and well-being. It can be that it's everybody's business but nobody's job, to use that cliche. But the fact that we have our core team now we can drive it initially, but we hope over time it will become integrated into the culture and fabric of the university.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think as well you know, with the team that you described there, and you're in a great position to make this sustainable and have a really long term impact on people's health and well-being by their staff or students. So I think, yeah, you know, we wish you all the best over the next. You know best of the journey. So I suppose to move on maybe from the staff and students and MTU in general, but I suppose what other, what can universities like MTU do to support, kind of maybe, health and wellbeing? And, andrea, I might go to you first on that. So, like you know, you might have some ideas there of what kind of universities could do to support students and staff well, universities are very they're very unique entities, um, in that they are like mini settlements, mini cities, mini environments, um.
Speaker 2:but there's huge opportunities because they have built environment, facilities, um, where people can engage in health enhancing behaviors, people can be active and so on. They have policies that impact large numbers of people, they have influence and they also have the centers of learning, centers of research, knowledge generation. But the biggest thing is they, I suppose, if you take the long term view, they are centres that can shape people, they can shape leaders of the future and so on. So the potential is huge. But, on a practical level, universities can be places and spaces that people are enabled to increase health knowledge, increase health literacy, to increase health knowledge, increase health literacy, but also supported them through policies that allow them the time, whether it's in their programs or whether it's in their working day, to actually engage in eye-opening kind of initiatives and events and so on.
Speaker 2:So, like I often chat at home and, yeah, my husband says you know why are you so obsessed with universities as health settings? That's why, because of the magnitude, there's 18 plus million uh, you know at last count, 18 plus million plus million tertiary students across the EU. And I always say to people that's more than London and New York combined. So if you what might seem like one small policy in a certain, in a singular university, if you can get EU level cohesion, you can get national level cohesion. Well then the magnitude of that reach is huge. And we're starting to see that we're aligning kind of now with EU partners through the Ingenium Alliance and through other projects where we're collaborating and we can have huge reach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a nice message to think about and I never thought about it, that you've done a nice job there and kind of maybe I'm sizing the potential and and I think your quote there was the potential is huge so I think we all have you know, but it is, it's nice to to kind of hear that and that, like the reminder says, of the influence that we can have and maybe are having um siobhan, what, what do you think that universities can do to support um students health and well-being or staff health and well-being?
Speaker 2:well, it's tough to follow. Follow up, um, what andrea just said. But, um, I suppose, and you know, um, you know, the alignment um with the eu universities, um, I think, is a big thing. And you know, looking at what other universities are doing, how can we be better? How can we, you know, how can we align ourselves, how can we collaborate, how can we learn from from other universities? And then, of course, always having the students leading the change. So, listening to the student voice when it comes to deciding on the policies and how things are going to be built from a structural perspective. And again, the same with the staff making the healthy choice, the easy choice for staff. That was always kind of my motto when I worked on staff initiatives was that the healthy choice needs to be the easy choice. How can we, how can we make that happen? How can we make that choice be a little bit more convenient? And again, the staff voice when it comes to policies around staff health and well-being is so important yeah, the healthy choice, make the easy choice.
Speaker 1:That's. That's a nice quote. I've actually haven't heard that before. Um, I like that one, siobhan um, and as well as put back to your student voice initiatives. But even what you described at the start of the podcast episode around you know four chairs and first years working together it sounds like that you're practicing what your priestess was.
Speaker 1:Really nice and important that we don't forget that the students are what we're about here and they're front and center in everything we do. And health and well-being is no different than that and probably actually even more important than anything else, because if we don't have the health and well-being and the easy choices and the support, we might not have the academic side of it and what goes along with that. So I'm going to put you guys into the future. Yeah, we've time machine, we're going five years. I'm not going to ask you what your life looks like, guys. We won't put on that road, so don't worry, you can relax. But what I would like to say like if, if this campus framers is a success, you know, like what? What does that look like for staff and students?
Speaker 2:I think there's a number of things for, from my perspective I think, having the program embedded to a greater extent in the core teaching and learning activities of the university, in the core learning activities of the university, in the core research activities of the university, and that it lives on in the core business of what we do.
Speaker 2:I would love to see more curricular integration. I would love to see innovative approaches to maybe offering credit bearing modules or some other type of micro-credentials for students across all programmes, not just health related topics, but to actually engage in health and wellbeing modules as part of their core programmes. I think if we could create something like that, that would be fantastic. Similarly, for staff, if there could be protected time or some protected space within the day for staff to engage in, whether it's self-development, health and well-being activities, whatever it might be, ideally. Sometimes I say you know you would hope that it would be so integrated that it shouldn't require an overt driver, that it should, it should be self-sustaining. You know, making maybe making myself redundant in that, but those were, those are the things, I think integrating it and embedding it, and if our team and Could have greater, I think, student representation and greater representation from the breadth of disciplines at MTU I think that would be really powerful.
Speaker 2:We're very unique in MTU in that. Our strength, I think, is in our diversity. So we have experts in the creative and performing arts, engineering, maritime studies, nursing everything, maritime studies, nursing everything, um, and that if we can all get together to create something to, to expand the breadth of a healthy mtu and leverage that, I think that would be very, very powerful yeah, and siobhan, you can come in the second.
Speaker 1:But I just want to add to your final point, deandra. I think that's really important because I think those people in the maritime and creative arts and they know their students, you know they meet the students on a daily basis, so I think it's usually really important that they're part of this process and and I think that's the beauty of this, I suppose a healthy MTU framework that you know we all come together and it's everyone's responsibility, um to get involved and to be actively trying to help themselves and help their students. So, um, yeah, thanks that, siobhan. What do you think five years down the line?
Speaker 2:I think that success is, I suppose, when it's not an initiative, but it's the norm. So it's just part of the culture. It's something that you know is ingrained in what MTU is. You know who we are and what we do. When there isn't, you know when, regardless of a team being in place or not a team being in place, that the positive changes still happen, they happen anyway because it's that deeply ingrained. I think Andrea made great points there, especially around building it into the curriculum, like that's a really, really important piece to make sure that it's sustainable. So I think, yeah, in five years time, if it's ingrained into the curriculum either. You know, through credit, small credit modules would be ideal across all disciplines and that you know it's ingrained in the culture.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Guys, this team is going to have a tough five years ahead to get to that point but of no doubt we'll get there. Come here like we're coming towards the end of the podcast here and you know thanks for outlining the framework there and the healthy campus and what it's all about and and what we, you know we hope it will do for for people you know in in mq and maybe further and the field across across ireland. And so my question really is moving now in the next short term. We went five years down. Let's come back to reality for a second. What, what have you planned? What initiatives have you planned, you know, in the short term, and how can maybe students and staff get get involved in those?
Speaker 2:um, I think it's. It's a really exciting time for us at present because we are about to launch our first ever, a healthy mtu roadshow, where we will have a series of events for both students and staff, um across all campuses and that will involve everything from demonstrations, cooking demonstrations, uh information stands from local and internal groups, um, you know, to give people, I think, a flavor and an opportunity again to engage with some of the services and supports that that are that are here. Um for staff we have there. There's siobhan will speak to. There's a flagship staff um event happening on the kerry campus. There's we're piloting here on the Cork campus as a staff wellbeing workshop that we hope will develop and that we can grow a portfolio of workshops tailored to different types of staff over time. And then we also have a couch chat event where we have three really interesting speakers who will speak about overcoming adversity in various forms and just creating a space to have an honest conversation. And this will apply. This will be of interest to both students and staff. But to have an honest conversation about topics like mental health and wellbeing, about topics like addiction, about topics really sensitive topics, but important topics, I think, to make it safe for people to engage with and reflect on. So I would say to people keep an eye on.
Speaker 2:We're evolving our social media presence at the moment and we would encourage all students and all staff to get involved, to come along to those events. We'll try to have free offerings where we can, you know, as incentives and so on for people to engage. But we just want to get conversations going and we've just submitted a piece to the MTU Cork Students' Union explicit magazine there and it's described that we're trying to consider a healthy MTU like a movement and trying to encourage all students to get involved in the movement. Student societies, you know, could collaborate with us. We'd love to see student volunteers and student placement opportunities, for example, to become involved in events, but then for staff as well, not only events and initiatives but for research collaborations, for collaborations across departments. So it's a movement and we hope that people will get involved.
Speaker 1:That's great. Sounds like a good start there. A lot of people know to maybe engage and keep an eye out for, so thanks for that. Andrea Siobhan mentioned the or Siobhan Andrea mentioned some of the staffing issues that you're looking at the Kerry campus. Do you want to maybe outline and tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So as part of the roadshow we're going to, I suppose we're going to run the flagship staff event in the Kerry Sports Academy where we have a series of speakers that will speak on women's health and we also have some general health testing, health screening stations as well for staff.
Speaker 2:There's a couple of local kind of health providers that are going to have stands there as well. It's also in the KSA where you know you have your staff gym membership, your staff tailored classes, so you know it's in the hub of where I suppose you know staff can go to engage in physical activity. We also, what's really great about this role and what's starting to happen which I'm, you know, really here for is there's been some collaborations. So there's an event coming up in collaboration with the social studies department where they've organized a fantastic speaker to come in and offer workshops to both staff and students. So that's happening. There's also some collaboration with the Student Engagement Office and we have some, you know really, I suppose, eager and motivated student engagement officers that I'm going to collaborate with over the coming months to actually look at local student need and then develop some initiatives that we're going to roll out over the coming months. So that collaboration is it's happening and so yeah, so it's exciting times certainly isn't this.
Speaker 1:There's a lot going on, so I suppose there's something there for the students to look out for and staff and maybe keep an eye out for the healthy campus logo and the emails and, you know, even look at the explicit magazines if you're a student, and we will share a lot of the stuff here in the show notes. But yeah, before we finish, guys, is there any? Any advice then, or anywhere else you want to let the students or staff know, to get further information or to maybe, if they want to know, take another deep dive into this or a further deep dive into this. Where would you recommend they go?
Speaker 2:I think one of the priorities for us at the moment is to actually build our own online presence and we hope in the next period of time that we'll be able to. If we were speaking again, that I'll be able to say go to the Healthy MTU website, go to the website of the Hexpo Research Group and you can see some of our publications and see some of the data that's there, and that's something that we're working on as a team, I think, definitely trying to find reputable sources of difficulty, because I think health and well-being, particularly on social media, there are some fantastic resources, but then there are others that maybe are not so evidence-based. So I think you can't go wrong with national resources. Healthy Ireland website has some really, really good stuff and it has almost a repository of signposts there if people are looking for accurate information, if you want to learn more about a particular health topic. The HSE as well has some really good resources out there. We're also, as Siobhan mentioned, their collaboration. We're working alongside colleagues in the library at the moment to try to collaborate and to try to build collections of well-being resources and so on in lots of different areas.
Speaker 2:So kind of watch that space as well and then, in terms of there's lots of really good podcasts and different accessible series as well. There's a really good one from it's recent, so Dr Richard Hogan and Dr Ciara Kelly have a really good one I don't know if I can say the name of it or you're going to censor me the F? You up podcast. So I really enjoy that. I think it's a really nice take on some health related topics. So different things for different people, but trying to ensure that whatever source you're using is reputable and based on evidence.
Speaker 1:And I know there's someone on their podcast right now, Andrea, referencing the MTULV podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought you were going to say that, andrea. I missed that opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks, and it's fine. It's okay, fair play, siobhan. You want to add there around you know place to go that our students could maybe if they want to find out a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I suppose, to echo what Andrea said, really has the Ireland, you know, is a great resource. The HSE, you know, know all the national ones, but I suppose, um, really it's. You know, I think it's important that you know for any students that are interested or have an interest in health and well-being that you're, you're more than welcome to get involved in the healthy campus stuff. Um, keep an eye out.
Speaker 2:Um, we, I suppose we have been quiet to date because we have been really busy behind the scenes organizing, getting structures and governance in place and you know, from here on, you're going to be hearing a lot more about healthy campus. So if you have an interest and if you, you know you want to learn more, you know, open up those emails. Um, anywhere you see the healthy campus logo and get involved. You know, if you see us in the corridor, come up and say hello, we would love to. You know, anybody, anybody that wants to collaborate, wants to get involved and can bring you know, you don't have to be a, you know, a fitness professional or you know anything like that. And if you have skills in digital media and you want to, you know, get involved, then we would absolutely love to you know, have that collaboration going yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that still set us out there Like we've students here that would love that. So it's great that you've highlighted that, siobhan, and we would encourage any students listening to actively. If they want to do something, seek it out, you know, maybe get experience leading health initiatives and know supporting a healthy mtu. That'd be great. Um, guys, it's super to have you on the podcast today. Thanks for joining.
Speaker 1:We have spoke to a lot of people, um, you know, from student engaged, like you mentioned. Yes, student counseling. We've had people from the hse on the podcast, but it's really nice to have both you here to chat about, I suppose, a healthy mtu and what I might need for students, and you know you're part of either a wider team and a broader team that will be leading out this, but it was really nice to hear from you what it's about and, the same post, what students can get involved in and the great initiatives and the great work that you're doing. So thank you for that and I think, just listen to both as well. Yeah, there are two right people to be leading, to be involved in this, and because you talk passionately about the experience of the student and you talk passionately about, um you know health and well-being and the importance of it.
Speaker 1:So, look, we'd like to wish you all the best with it. We with with a healthy end to you. And, you know, hopefully we might come back in the podcast when that other podcast isn't successful. We might get you back on to talk about in five years time and see where it's going. But look, thanks for your time, your energy, your experience. I can see, Andrea, you want to come in on one thing.
Speaker 2:Just one very final, very final thing. I think there's two people I didn't mention and I think you know both of our respective line managers. So, from my perspective, dr Keane O'Neill, head of the Department of Sport, leisure and Childhood Studies, but also co-director, along with myself, of a healthy MTU, and his work has been really supportive and it's behind the scenes in terms of driving and advocating and continuously advocating for that, and also from a health and leisure department perspective, dr Michael Hall as well has been really supportive and I think just to say thank you from both siobhan and I to those, to those two people, because, again, a lot of that, that advocacy, is behind the scenes and it's, it's very much appreciated yeah, and unless we have people that empower us to do this work and allow us to do the work, it wouldn't happen.
Speaker 1:so yeah, um, I'm glad you interrupted me, andrea, and I'm glad you highlighted that, because that's kind of it is important to do that. So, guys, thanks for listening, thank you guys for today and hope our people listening have got something from it and can go somewhere. So all the best in your health and wellbeing journey, all the best with this semester and thanks for tuning in. Have a good day.