“Mind is my favourite mental health charity, both in terms of its approach to mental health and its priorities. When I found out Sarah was both a former student at the University of Hull and had recently received an Honorary Doctorate from Hull, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to reach out and make contact.” – Professor Rina Arya, Head of the School of Arts

On Wednesday 19th March, the University of Hull’s Professor Rina Arya will be joined in conversation by Sarah Hughes, the CEO of mental health charity MIND. At the Centre for Sustainability, in London, Arya and Sarah, who graduated from the University of Hull in 1997 with a BA and Diploma in Social Policy and Social Work, will be discussing the challenges of mental health in a post Covid environment.

The event, entitled ‘Building an Equitable Approach to Mental Well-Being’, will be open to all.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity,” said Sarah, “storytelling is a core part of the learning community, sharing our experiences, how we have overcome challenges, the struggles and the wins, stories connect us all and offers solidarity and hope, I want to play my part.”

“Mental health is an important priority for me,” Rina added. “both as an educator and on a personal level as well. I don’t think we have enough joined up conversations about it, especially since the pandemic where the extent of it has been worse. It’s a global problem and hasn’t been sufficiently addressed.”

With mental health in the news, it feels like an important time to be discussing this topic and putting the wellbeing of different groups at the front and centre of the conversation. It’s a conversation that both Rina and Sarah are eager to have.

“Mind is the leading mental health federation in England and Wales,” said Sarah, introducing her work. “We provide everything from national advice and information lines, services in the local community and charity shops across the two nations. We campaign and advocate for better mental health and we lead the way in terms of fighting stigma and discrimination.”

“From a student perspective, which I’m most interested in, there are three issues that need to be addressed,” Rina said. “There’s the impact of the disruption to learning, the impact of increased screen use and the cost of living crisis. Students have a significant amount of pressure on them.”

The University of Hull connection is an important reason for bringing Rina and Sarah together for this timely conversation. Last year, Sarah was given an Honorary Doctorate at the University of Hull, recognising the impact that our former student has had in advocating and working on behalf of those with mental health problems. Sarah is a thought leader on global health, and is proud to be an alumna.

“I am super proud to be a Hull University alumni, getting the honour was humbling and wonderful all at the same time. It was then and is now one of our finest universities with some brilliant programmes with a deep commitment to social justice and that is important to me.”

For Rina, the opportunity to have this event with such an important graduate was one that was difficult to pass up given her long-standing interest in issues relating to mental health and the needs of different communities.

“Culture is central to mental health,” Rina said. “Everything from idioms of distress to treatment modalities are culturally specific. Unless culture is placed at the centre of the therapeutic encounter, we will fail to meet the mental health needs of others, especially those who are from marginalized communities. That means that those who work in mental health need to understand the importance of recognizing unconscious bias and culturally informed perspectives.”

With so much talk about mental health, it’s sometimes difficult to get to the heart of the topic, so we asked Sarah what’s the one thing about mental health that we should be talking about, but we’re not?

“Not falling into the divisive trap of suggesting that the rise in prevalence isn’t real or conflate the issue of how people talk about mental health,” said Sarah. “The people on the waiting lists are desperate for help and that’s not the same thing as people using mental health language in their daily lives – or we don’t say people are more cancer aware but the increase in diagnosis is made up – we say increased awareness means more people come forward – its literally that simple. As you can see I feel strongly about this…”

Find out more and book your place at the event >>