Voices of Academia

24. SPECIAL 1YR ANNIVERSARY EPISODE – How To Change The System That Sets Us Up To Fail | Andrea Hayward

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TW/CW: Bullying and abuse

Emily chats with Andrea Hayward, a Project Manager for the CACTUS Communications ‘Joy and Stress Triggers: A global survey on mental health among researchers.’ They discuss open-ended answers from the survey, highlighting what institutions can do to ease work-related pressures, reduce barriers to seeking help, and encourage personal wellbeing of researchers. Andrea also opens up, for the first time, about experiences she had during her Masters, including being made to feel like she was never good enough.

This episode covers:

  • The purpose of CACTUS Communications and how the organisation became involved in the researcher mental health space
  • How Andrea’s work on the CACTUS Mental Health Initiative has made her aware, for the first time, of the psychological experiences she had during her Masters, including being made to feel like she was never good enough
  • The role of managing academia-induced stressors shouldn’t fall solely on the researcher
  • Suggestions to reduce barriers to seeking help and support in academia
  • What institutions can do to reduce work-related pressures and help encourage work-life balance and personal wellbeing of researchers
  • Some initiatives that are assisting researcher mental health
  • Different types of bullying
  • Improving policies to feel valued, safe, and included in academia

    • If you find this episode valuable, and have some spare change, please consider supporting the podcast!

    Resources:

    • Activities under the CACTUS Mental Health initiative:

      • The CACTUS Mental Health Survey reports

      Twitter: CACTUS Mental Health Initiative

      The CACTUS Mental Health Webinar series

      The CACTUS Mental Health Video series

      Researchers and Their Stories

      ‘R Voice’ – a private community forum for researchers to talk openly about what they’re going through

      • Mental health Internationally Delivering Support (MINDS) conference page
      • Academic mental health networks

        • Dragonfly Mental Health workshops available for universities and institutes to provide concrete steps for improving researcher mental health

        PhD Balance

        TAE Consortium (Transforming Academic Ecosytems)

        Full transcript of the podcast is available here, with many thanks to Dan Ranson. If you find these transcripts useful, please consider supporting accessibility! 

        Mental health support: please contact your GP or use the appropriate support for your country at https://checkpointorg.com/global/

        Recorded: 12/11/2021.

        Sound: Mindset by Ketsa

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        Voices of AcademiaBy Emily King
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