Journal of Psychiatry

Creating a mindful university to boost mental health and performance

27^th International Conference on PSYCHIATRY & PSYCHOLOGY HEALTH

June 18-19, 2018 Paris, France

Richard Chambers

Monash University, Australia

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Psychiatry

Abstract:

University students are facing unprecedented academic and social pressures. Combined with the fact that most mental health disorders emerge in adolescence and young adulthood, research has found elevated levels of stress, anxiety and depression amongst tertiary students, often impacting academic performance. Mindfulness has been shown to increase resilience, improve mental health and boost cognitive study performance. It also increases self-awareness and interpersonal functioning. Monash University in Melbourne, Australia is piloting a novel university-wide mindfulness initiative, embedding mindfulness in the core curriculum for students, offering optional programs for staff and pioneering online delivery methods. As far as we know, we are the only university in the world attempting to deliver mindfulness on such a scale. Our research has found our programs and curricula are generally well received and lead to significant improvements in both mental health and work/study engagement. Our programs also contributed to Monash for winning the World Health Organisation�??s �??World�??s Healthiest Workplace�?� award in 2017. This keynote presentation outlines the underling rationale, the innovative nature of our approach and the results of our formal evaluations