batyr

Greater Charitable Foundation funding will enable batyr to deliver their batyr@uni program at the University of Newcastle (UoN) over a two year period. The batyr@uni partnership aims to build a supportive community around mental health by taking a holistic approach to stigma reduction and improving help-seeking behaviour. batyr@uni educates and empowers students through batyr’s mental health and wellbeing initiatives, and increases their knowledge of the diverse avenues of support available to them in the university community. Through sharing lived experience stories and peer-to-peer education, batyr are keeping young people from reaching the point of crisis, and changing lives.

Sadly, suicide remains the leading cause of death for young people aged 15-24 in Australia(1). The Australian Bureau of Statistics (2022) National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing found that 39.6% of young people aged 16-24 had a mental health disorder in the last 12 months. That's almost two in five(2). Orygen’s National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health have identified that, of Australia’s 1.4 million university students at least one in four of them will experience mental ill-health in any one year. Risk factors such as “financial stress, lack of sleep, poor diet, balancing work and study responsibilities, living away from family and pressure to excel in the context of an increasingly competitive job market" combine to create or exacerbate mental ill health for students(3).
_{(1) Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2020). Causes of Death, Australia.
(2) Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2022). National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing.
(3) Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health. (2017). Under the radar: The mental health of Australian university students. Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health.}

The batyr@uni model has three unique elements: a peer-to-peer model, stigma reduction through the sharing of lived experience, and early intervention. The batyr team were amongst the expert contributors in developing the Australian University Mental Health Framework, published by Orygen (2020). The framework identifies six principles guiding mentally healthy university settings that support students to thrive educationally and personally. batyr is among the key providers supporting universities with two of the six principles: -
● The student experience is enhanced through mental health and wellbeing approaches that are informed by students’ needs, perspectives and experiences.
● Mentally healthy university communities encourage participation; foster a diverse, inclusive environment; promote connectedness; and support academic and personal achievement.

The batyr@uni approach is to work alongside the university counselling, equity and financial services in collaboration with administration, students and faculties.