Ms Sarah Hughes:

Yes, I have a couple of thoughts on that and agree with what Mr. Whelan-Curtin said about connectedness and belonging. Pre-pandemic, USI did some research on student mental health and one of the key findings was that loneliness was a major issue. This was at a time when everybody was still on campus but despite that, there was a very high level of loneliness. We have moved a long way in terms of stigma reduction in this country. The conversation about mental health is national now. We trot out the phrases that "it is okay to be not okay" and that "it is okay to ask for help" but what we are finding, particularly with the student population, is that is accepted at a general level but not at an individual level. There is still a self-stigma going around. When we look at the sense of anxiety, there is a lot of perfectionism involved. People feel the need to get the first and not just pass the exam, to get the best work experience and so on. When all of these factors interplay, people end up with a lot of thoughts going around in their head but they are not really reaching out to anybody. At the same time, they agree that people should definitely talk about their mental health.