This week, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Wilmore, announced the introduction of an online mental health and wellbeing phone application that will be accessible to all UNE students from Monday 18th October.
The app, TalkCampus, is funded through 2021 HEPPP funding and Pulse caught up with the small, highly-skilled team comprising Olivia Uphill (Project Manager), Jules Kryger (Accessibility & Wellness Advisor) and Richelle Roberts (Accessibility & Wellness Advisor) to learn more about it.
Why TalkCampus?
Student mental health is a growing concern across campuses nationally and globally. Demand for support is increasing and wellbeing teams need more resources to manage and encourage students to seek support as well as to provide out of hours care.
TalkCampus is a global peer support network, available 24/7, which includes several in-app support services via a wellness centre as well as a live feed where students can post, comment, and engage with likeminded students.
Using the app is anonymous, it is not run by UNE and we are unable to see which UNE students are using the app. This provides students with a platform that is moderated and designed as place where students can be themselves and talk about how they are really feeling. TalkCampus is based around peer support so students can use it if they want help or even just to connect and support others. The app is also available in over 25 different languages, which will allow our international students to connect with students of the same culture on a global platform.
In addition to the above TalkCampus offers an end-to-end solution combining upstream support with real-time crisis escalation that is integrated with UNE’s existing procedures. It combines state-of-the-art machine learning, built in collaboration with MIT and Harvard University, to offer users intelligent peer support that is intuitively designed, engaging and safe.
What are you hoping to achieve with TalkCampus?
It’s critical that we do more to reach students who are outside of the existing frameworks and connect them with relevant, timely support. TalkCampus provides a revolutionary way to reach students who are not engaging with existing services.
It provides a valuable opportunity for students to connect and support one another whilst navigating the challenges of higher education, self-direct their health goals, and up-skill in mental health prevention. Education is a protective factor from mental ill-health, which makes TalkCampus an innovative and valuable tool to help students reach their educational and personal goals.
The main goals for this project are:
- Providing students with a platform where they feel comfortable to engage and communicate about the ups and downs of university life
- Student Connectiveness: provide students with a space where they feel connected to likeminded students
- Providing staff with an extra resource to offer to students who might need somewhere to engage with other students
- Students at-risk will have increased access to mental health support in a 24/7 model, in time model that supports students wherever they are.
- It is expected that this will serve as a preventative measure and a more appropriate channel for students which will reduce burden on treatment services including Counselling and the Crisis Line.
- Access to data from the app around patterns of usage, engagement levels, mood, topics and community sentiment will assist in informing emerging student needs.
When will TalkCampus go live?
The project is getting ready for the execution phase, as we have finished working with our pilot cohort in Trimester 2 and will launch to all UNE students on 18th October.
As part of the roll out, we will engage students via Moodle, social media, email, AskUNE, orientation and hopefully through lectures and tutorials – we will be providing some more information to school and faculties very soon.
We also wanted to ensure staff were aware of the app and can reach out to get involved before we launch to our students. The ongoing promotion and awareness of the app will be key to ensuring students continue to utilise it. We will then work with a few areas to transition the app into a business-as-usual state.
If any staff would like to become more involved in the project, please do not hesitate to reach out to the project team.