On Tuesday 28 June Sussex’s first Festival of Doctoral Research kicks off with our Opening Talks, titled: ‘From Reactive to Proactive: Reimagining mental health for doctoral researchers’. Our three guest speakers – Dr Jeremy Niven, Dr Fiona Denney and Josh Hutton – will be reviewing the current attitudes towards the mental health of doctoral researchers, and arguing for the adoption of a more proactive approach.

In anticipation of the talks, we sat down for a thought-provoking conversation with Dr Cassie Hazell (below left) and Dr Clio Berry (below right). Based in the School of Psychology, both Cassie and Clio are passionate mental health advocates with extensive experience in the field, and both are also contributing to Sussex’s Understanding the Mental Health of Doctoral Researchers (U-DOC) project, funded by the Office for Students. They gave us their thoughts on the current landscape around mental health, and offered some advice for anybody who finds themselves facing difficulties.

You can read our conversation below; to book your place on the talks, check out our Festival of Doctoral Research webpage.

In recent years mental health has become a prominent issue in public discourse. Alongside this, the conversation around the mental health of doctoral researchers now has a real sense of urgency. Why do you think this is?

Cassie: Mental health has always been important, but in the UK we are starting to become more comfortable talking about mental health, and acknowledging the impact that poor mental health can have. I think attitudes are changing and Doctoral Researchers are increasingly feeling able to acknowledge any mental health difficulties they are experiencing and talk about this with their peers. Social media has been good for this, in enabling Doctoral Researchers to have these conversations in a public arena. When lots of people come together to acknowledge a problem it allows space for people to start thinking of a solution.

Do you think there is something in the format of a PhD that makes doctoral researchers susceptible to mental health problems?

Clio: Media coverage suggests that doctoral students are particularly susceptible to mental health problems, but I think from a research perspective we are still testing whether there is an issue of increase – both in terms of whether rates of mental health problems are greater amongst doctoral researchers compared to, say, the general public, and also in whether the numbers of doctoral researchers experiencing mental health problems is also increasing. The evidence so far suggests high rates of mental health problems amongst doctoral research students, but we need to keep exploring this and especially so in a UK context. It’s important to be evidence-based here.

Saying that, considering what we know about risk and protective factors more generally for mental health, there are aspects of the PhD process that could have an impact on mental health. A PhD can be really isolated and isolating, it can include really long hours and few holidays, and no-one can really cover for you if you get sick or something else happens – plus it is a competitive environment and one in which people are essentially being tested against really high standards – be those of supervisors, peers, conference audiences, peer reviewers and so on. All of these things could potentially play into vulnerability to mental health problems.

Drawing on your research, what advice would you give to doctoral researchers who might find themselves experiencing some form of mental distress?

Clio: Please talk to someone. You are not alone. Find someone that you trust and talk to them. Consider how you might try to help and support someone that mattered to you who was struggling – and then try to treat yourself as if you are that person that matters.

Cassie: Some of my research looks at the effects of incorporating self-help into talking therapies. For me, I think it is important to acknowledge our own strengths and the things we can do to look after our own mental health; but, like Clio said, equally acknowledging that it is ok to ask for help and seek help from professional services if they might be helpful for you.

Clio: My research interests more broadly focus on the links between time use and mental health, so I would say go and do something else. Do another activity. Do something you used to enjoy or you’ve never tried. Do something active, do some exercise, go for a walk, go to a cafe. I think during a PhD, people can get caught in a trap of feeling guilty if they take time out to do other things, but there is so much evidence that doing other things is absolutely essential for your mental and physical health.

It is becoming increasingly important for universities to have structures in place to support students struggling with these issues. In an ideal world, what changes would you like to see in the way universities approach this issue? Are there any specific resources that you think could help, or any attitudinal changes that you’d be keen to see?

Clio: We need to think about having the optimum balance between support and ‘stretch’. The ‘stretch’ is all the intellectual, personal and interpersonal challenges of doing the PhD; the stuff we can’t necessarily change and should not necessarily be trying to change. A PhD has got to have a level of difficulty, otherwise it doesn’t mean anything. Support is something we can work on: thinking about individual support, relational and systemic aspects, training, service and support provision, opportunities for social support, and fundamentally all of us at all levels in academia committing to the promotion of a healthy work-life balance.

This is, partly, what we are attempting to find out with our U-DOC project – to generate evidence about mental health problems amongst doctoral researchers and the links to other factors, and use the evidence to feed into a suite of interventions which are appropriate, targeted and fit for purpose.

Personally, I’d like the idea that mental health problems are ‘the norm’ or a rite of passage during a PhD to be challenged, as I don’t think it is true. Equally, having pre-existing mental health problems or experiencing mental health problems for the first time during a PhD should not be considered in anyway a reflection of doctoral researchers’ character, ability, or suitability for an ongoing academic career. We need to learn about doctoral researcher mental health and try to ensure we provide effective preventative interventions and treatment, but I don’t think we should be involved in perpetuating any idea that doctoral researchers could be or should be a totally ‘mentally healthy’ workforce.

Can you tell us about some of the resources that students can currently access at Sussex?

Cassie: Doctoral Researchers might not be aware that all of the services that are available to undergraduate students are also available to them. The Student Life Centre can be a great place to start as they can help signpost you to other services on campus. Sussex also have a counselling service that people can refer themselves to.

There are other resources on campus that can be helpful in maintaining good mental health. The sports centres offer classes and gym space so that Doctoral Researchers can look after their physical health, which in turn can benefit mental wellbeing. There are also lots of opportunities to get involved in social activities which can provide that sense of connectedness that can sometimes feel lost when experiencing a mental health problem. The university is also part of an active and vibrant city, and there are many NHS-based and third sector organisations that can offer mental health support. The Sussex University app has a list of these services.

The Festival of Doctoral Research runs from the 26-28 June 2018, and features an exciting string of events designed to celebrate and showcase the innovative doctoral research underway at Sussex. You can see the full programme of events here.