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This online event will critically examine the issue of over-pathologizing in student mental health services and explore the need to strike a balanced approach in supporting students.

Through case studies and practical examples, attendees will gain tools to reflect on their own practice, engage in meaningful discussions, and share insights with peers. By the end of the session, delegates will have a deeper understanding of how to provide more effective, student-centered mental health care and foster healthier approaches to mental well-being within higher education settings.

This event is ideal for counsellors, psychotherapists, and mental health professionals in higher education who would like to build on their existing clinical skills and contribute to the development of a supportive, empowering environment for students.

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9.40am – 10.40am

In recent years, there have been extensive efforts in raise public awareness of mental health problems, with the goal of reducing stigma, improving mental health literary and encouraging help-seeking. For some , these efforts are essential and will mean access to treatment and a reduction in symptoms. However, it is also vital to assess whether, for others, the current approach to mental health awareness might be causing unintended harm. In this talk Lucy will discuss the growing body of quantitative and qualitative research that highlights the potential negative effects of mental health awareness efforts in young people, particularly regarding how young people interpret and respond to their psychological difficulties.

After this session you will:

1. understand the effects of mental health awareness efforts in young people

2. understand mental health awareness in a university context,

3. understand whether some well-intended efforts to raise awareness have had unintended consequences.

10.50am – 11.50am

This session will place concerns about over-pathologising in student mental health services in the context of Nick's work on ‘concept creep’. For several years Nick has been documenting the tendency for mental health-related concepts (e.g., depression, anxiety, trauma) to expand their meanings, and exploring the causes and consequences of this trend of semantic inflation.

In addition to demonstrating the trend, Nick has shown that people who hold expansive concepts, and especially young people, are more likely to self-diagnose with mental health problems, more likely to over-estimate the prevalence of these problems, and more likely to see these problems as enduring, uncontrollable parts of who they are. Nick has also shown how rising mental health awareness can backfire by lowering the threshold at which people pathologise experience, a process that can make mental health worse.

The aims of this session will be to provide an overview of these issues, to present a summary of relevant up-to-the-minute research findings, and to share some thoughts about what needs to be done to overcome the adverse effects of concept creep.

After this session you will have:

1. an understanding of the cultural trends that are driving the expansive use of mental health-related concepts, especially among young people
2. recognition of the impact of concept creep on how people apply these concepts, including effects on self-diagnosis, identity, help-seeking and stigma
3. enhanced awareness of the some of the steps that could be taken to counteract the adverse effects of concept creep

12.00pm - 12.45pm

Join host and chair of the U&C Division Catriona Keane, U&C divisional exec member Emma Wingate, alongside presenters Nick Haslam and Lucy Foulkes in a reflection of the presentations.Ìý