Winter Wellbeing @ the RNN Group
College life is not just about studying. It’s also about the experiences enjoyed outside of the classroom as well as ensuring our learners health and wellbeing is a top priority too.
All three are important in the college journey as well as life after college, and none more important than good mental health and wellbeing, because with this aspect mainly sorted you feel able to join in with college experiences and excel at your learning.
Good mental health and well being
We understand that the festive season can be hard for many people and for many it’s not a joyous time.
Our staff and the Group recognise and place a great importance on mental health awareness and wellbeing for all members of our community.
We have a dedicated Student Support Team at all our Colleges who offer help and support to students who may be experiencing difficult/challenging times in their personal worlds.
People seek our team’s support for many reasons such as experiencing:
- Anxiety, stress and panic attacks
- Feeling overwhelmed in public settings
- Low mood
- Loss and bereavement
- Disturbing and unwanted thoughts and images
- Poor sleep
- Relationship difficulties
- Identity and self-image issues
- Abuse/bullying
- Addictive behaviours (including substance abuse)
- Past trauma
- Troublesome repetitive behaviours
- Self-harming
- Frequent or troublesome issues with anger
- Concerns about living with physical illness/conditions
- Housing difficulties/problems at home
- Financial worries
- Our Student Support Team offers mentoring, counselling and safeguarding.
Well being is at the heart of our Colleges and values
Mentoring
Mentoring tends to be the first point of contact normally when accessing our team.
Mentoring offers:
- A safe space to offload, puzzle over, and work positively toward managing life issues and emotionally upsetting times
- Links to health support, social support and primary/secondary care
- Practical support with housing and financial applications, and travelling to college issues
- Appropriate advocacy – when a learner may need support linking with other teams/organisations within college and sometimes with external agencies
- A place to discuss the possibility of a referral to counselling, if counselling has been requested or advised
- Safety and welfare: Mentors and Welfare Officers will always work to keep students and the community safe and are all fully trained safeguarding staff
- Wellbeing advice including sexual health, self-care themes and self-help information
Counselling
Counselling offers:
Professional counselling – all counsellors have professional membership and follow an ethical code of practice A safe, private and confidential space to explore often deeper, complex or more troublesome issues in a more methodical and structured way various choices for the student/client to make in how their counselling process progresses and which methods/models work best for each individual (tailored approach), the chance of developing a useful, positive and supportive relationship whilst working through concerns.
Stress and sleep
Our focus this month is on looking after yourself and specifically around how to manage stress and improve sleep. Kooth – an online mental wellbeing community – have been in to speak our learners about mental health, sleep and stress. You can find out more about Kooth here and how you can support yourself and others to aid winter wellbeing.
Further support on stress and sleep can be found on Togetherall. To find out more about Togetherall you can watch this video.
Safeguarding
Our learners can contact the College Safeguarding Team (during College open hours) by contacting the team on safeguarding@rnngroup.ac.uk or asking for safeguarding at any of our College reception desks.