The benefits of student-led health promotion intervention

Abstract

Purpose

The benefits of a student-led mental health promotion intervention on World Mental Health day result in tangible learning benefits for those students. The event occurs within the students’ own university. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

This case study evaluates students’ experience on a mental health promotion intervention. This intervention was to enable students to experience running a health promotion intervention and develop their health promotion skills outside of their lectures. Students were recruited who had just completed a module on health promotion. Students had to plan and organise the intervention, which included involving other organisations and facilities both external and internal to the university. The experience was evaluated through the case study using as data collection a semi-structured interview.

Findings

Results indicated that students found the experience to be beneficial in deepening their understanding of health promotion, mental health awareness and in increasing their self-esteem. Limitations of this case study are in the argument for reproducibility of results, which is affected by the small number of students who took part.

Research limitations/implications

There are opportunities to develop this idea further and to broaden the availability of the initiative, enabling more students from diverse backgrounds to experience putting theory into practice.

Originality/value

To the best knowledge of the author, this study, although with limitations, provided a good understanding on how to develop health promotion skills within a university setting. The outcomes of this study are mainly applicable to a health studies course, educators of mental health promotion, university mental health support services and research related to this topic, especially on promoting mental health awareness and education.

Citation

Lane-Martin, A. (2019), "The benefits of student-led health promotion intervention", The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, Vol. 14 No. 6, pp. 436-446. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-04-2019-0023