The BodyMind Approach® to support students in higher education: Relationships between student stress, medically unexplained physical symptoms and mental health

• Helen Payne ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Hertfordshire

     University of Hertfordshire

     Welwyn Hatfield, Reino Unido

     
• Localización: Innovations in education and teaching international, ISSN 1470-3297, Vol. 59, Nº 4, 2022, págs. 483-494
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Using the UK as an example, students attending higher education providers (HEPs) increasingly suffer mental ill-health due to new stress factors. Relationships between stress, frequently co-occurring chronic medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) and mental health are explored as the basis for proposing The BodyMind Approach® (TBMA) as an innovative intervention, addressing the body and mind experience of MUS. Excessive stress can lead to/exacerbate, mental health difficulties and/or MUS (such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue/pain for which tests and scans are normal). MUS mostly affects women, non-native speakers and young people, all high numbers at HEPs. Students resist mental health services, and half in need do not disclose or seek help. TBMA, as an evidence-based, research-informed intervention, tested in the health service, is more accessible when framed as learning to self-manage symptom distress. Policymakers might consider this intervention to help improve student mental health as part of an institution-wide approach.