A series of guest lectures aiming to help de-stigmatise mental health issues have been held at Leeds Beckett University.

The free, public lectures, formed part of the national University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day, and took place on Wednesday 18 February, promoting the mental health of those who live and work in higher education settings.

Dr Elenor Longden, a research associate at the University of Liverpool’s Psychosis Research Group, gave a lecture entitled ‘Hearing Voices: Recovery and Discovery’. Dr Longden has a specialist interest in voice hearing, trauma, and dissociation and has lectured and published internationally on ways of understanding and recovering from psychosis, including events for TED and the World Health Organisation.

Professor Mark Williams, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford then presented his talk entitled ‘Mindfulness – from theory to practice’, where he explored what mindfulness is and what implications it might have for us all.

Speaking about the importance of using mindfulness to address mental health issues, Professor Williams said: “Mindfulness is an ancient meditation technique, made specialist within Buddhism, but part of every ancient wisdom and tradition was the art of being still and being silent in the face of all the distractions that afflict our minds.

“Mindfulness is really helpful when dealing with mental health issues because a lot of stuff comes into the mind that we don’t want and very often our normal strategies for getting rid of them don’t work very well. Mindfulness helps to stabilise attention and with just a few minutes a day practice it allows you to become more aware of the early warning sign, to change modes of minds away from over thinking and become more compassionate to the self.”

Talking about how mindfulness can be applied in a clinical setting he added: “I think the real advantage of mindfulness within the NHS is that it was developed as a preventative approach to mental health. The initial intention was that it could be something that people could practice when they weren’t feeling bad to prevent future risk. Mindfulness looks at what is keeps people vulnerable and keeps hooking them back in to an inflamed state of depression, worry or anxiety and helps to adjust their thinking. The NICE guidelines recommend that mindfulness is used preventatively through mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, which myself and my colleagues at Oxford developed, as a way of helping people to prevent relapse.”

The guest lectures concluded with chartered psychologist and author Dr Oliver James presenting his lecture, ‘Staying Sane in a Mad Post-Blatherite World. Dr James qualified as a clinical psychologist and practised as one in an NHS post for six years and is the author of books including They F*** You Up, Affluenza, Contented Dementia and Love Bombing.

In October 2014, Professor Susan Price, Vice Chancellor of Leeds Beckett University signed a pledge of support on behalf of the institution to end negative attitudes towards people with mental health problems. The pledge, part of MIND’s ‘Time to Change’ national campaign, signifies a renewed commitment by Leeds Beckett to eliminate the stigma and discrimination suffered by those with a mental health condition.

University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day is an annual event to promote the mental health of those who live and work in higher education settings. The initiative was started by UMHAN (University Mental Health Advisers Network) in 2012 and is supported by Student Minds and members of the Alliance for Student-Led Wellbeing.

The theme of the day this year was about choosing to disclose your mental health difficulties, whether this be to your university or to your support networks.

Alongside the guest lectures, a number of internal and external services showed their support for the day with an exhibition in our Students’ Union offices on the first floor of our Portland Building.

A range of organisations including Re-think Mental Illness, Student Minds and Community Links, all who are working to support, empower and promote positive mental health were in attendance, as well as our own Students’ Union officers and volunteers.

There was also the opportunity for people to sign a mental health pledge on a pledge wall, as well as information about the support available for students at Leeds Beckett, and free massages courtesy of InTouch, a Leeds Holistic therapy service.