The Change Makers
A podcast celebrating the remarkable not for profit people dedicating their careers to making positive change.
We'll be talking to society's fixers, menders, mopper-uppers and fighters about why they do their job, what they see in their work and why it matters.
The Change Makers
Dom Smithies, Student Minds on the need to remember the mental health of students.
In the UK, around half of young people go to university, and 1 in 3 of those people report poor mental wellbeing. The same number say their mental health has worsened since beginning university.
Enter Dom Smithies, Influencing and Advocacy lead at Student Minds, the UK’s student mental health charity. By listening to the needs and concerns of students, understanding the issues affecting them, responding to Government consultations and campaigning on the topics that aren’t being picked up, Dom is dedicated to improving these mental health outcomes and encouraging this competitive and complex industry to change.
We chat to Dom about his route into student mental health, the reasons students may struggle with their mental health and the multiple ways he and his team are working to tackle these issues. We discuss how the government could do better by young people and reflect on the third sector more broadly – including the sense of never being able to do enough.
If you are a student, parent or carer of a student or simply interested in mental health – this episode will leave you confident that brilliant people are fighting to make things better.
· Find out more about Student Minds at: https://www.studentminds.org.uk/
· Details of the statistics quoted can be found in this Student Minds insight briefing.
· If you’d like to get in touch with the Change Makers team, email thechangemakerspod@gmail.com or find us on Instagram @thechangemakerspod.
Content warning: We discuss the topic of suicide in this episode, so please take care listening. If you are affected by this or any of our conversation, please visit the Samaritans website.