Mental health support at work
It is recognised that people need a healthy level of both mental and physical health to underpin a positive sense of overall wellbeing. It is also known that there are many factors in our lives which can affect our mental health and wellbeing. Our experience at work can be a major influence. Additionally, if we are experiencing problems with our mental health which are not intrinsically related to our work, the support available in our workplaces can be a big positive or negative factor.

41% of people reported experiencing mental health symptoms caused or worsened by work in the past year
A joint report by Business in the Community & BUPA in 2021 produced statistics related to mental ill health and work. It stated that 41% of people reported experiencing mental health symptoms caused or worsened by work in the past year. Also, 51% of those surveyed reported that the poor mental health they felt related to work was due to pressure. However, the good news was that 76% of people said that their colleagues were supportive of their mental health needs and 69% of managers were the same.

Support available at Kent 
We have a great deal of support in place for colleagues who feel affected by symptoms of poor mental health and for those who are diagnosed with mental health problems. There is a

• Thriving @ Work group which has worked on implementing the recommendations of the Stephenson-Farmer government review; its work has built on counselling and support provisions implemented by University and Occupational Health (OH), like the Employee Assistance Programme and funded psychotherapy.
• The Thriving @ Work group work has underpinned training available through Talent & Organisational Development (T&OD) in various areas of mental health support and understanding; the training is available for individuals and managers.
• When it carried out its needs assessment, the Thriving @ Work group could see problems with communicating available support for staff, so the the Mental Health Support One Stop Shop webpages were created. The information on all support available for staff is accessible there plus advice on how to access it.

Training on mental health subjects can be viewed and accessed on the T&OD webpages. Courses scheduled are:

• ‘Understanding Depression’ on 02/03/22
• ‘Understanding Stress & Anxiety’ on 23/03
• ‘Introduction to Workplace Mental Health and Wellbeing’ on 11/05
• ‘Mental Health Training for Line Managers’ on 25/05

Mental Health Allies
Another important development was setting a Mental Health Allies network. This is someone who seeks out opportunities to learn more about mental health, advocates for people with mental health problems and looks for ways to support them while modelling behaviour which supports positive mental health. T&OD is offering training to staff who want to fulfil the role of a Mental Health Ally at the University. The first cohort of trainees went through the course last year. Contact T&OD to find out when the next course will be running.

OH Rehabilitation Programme
Finally, it is worth a reminder that staff who need time away from work due to mental health problems can be supported back to work gradually and safely by an OH rehabilitation programme. Management need to be essentially involved in this; they have to initiate OH involvement by completing a Management Referral. This process ensures that the individual being referred has sight of any paperwork before it is sent to OH; signatures of both parties are required for this purpose.

It’s really important that all staff know how much there is available to support their mental health needs. When you read this article, please make others aware by passing it on.

Resources:

University of Kent Staff Mental Health One Stop Shop

University of Kent Employee Assistance Programme, (USERNAME: uokent |PASSWORD: university. The Freephone number for the service is 0808 168 2143)

University of Kent Staff Health and Wellbeing webpages

University of Kent Staff Occupational Health webpages

University of Kent Training & Organisational Development webpages

‘Mental Health at Work: building back responsibly’: joint report by Business in the Community & BUPA

Annual Cathedral Concert returns with Haydn and Mendelssohn Saturday 12 March

The annual Colyer-Fergusson Concert by the Music department returns to Canterbury Cathedral from the first time since 2019, and features two electrifying works – the drama of Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Mendelssohn’s vibrant First Symphony – on Saturday 12 March at 7.30pm.

The University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra will be joined by stellar soloists, and in particular two University alumni, for Haydn’s choral masterpiece, and the Nave will also resound to the vigour of Mendelssohn’s youthful symphony. The concert, conducted by Head of Music Performance, Dan Harding, brings together students, staff, alumni and members of the local community, with the Orchestra led by second-year Biosciences postgraduate student, violinist Kammy Pike.

Tickets and details are here.

Join us for one of the highlights of the University’s performing year!

Join the University of Kent Players and get involved with a brand new production for 2022

Save the date!
Death in the Diner | An interactive murder mystery event
20 – 21 May 2022 | Mungo’s

Knickerbocker Gloria’s is the gaudiest American themed diner in town, known for their milkshakes, roller skates and cheap chips. There was nothing unusual about the hustle and bustle of the evening crowd until a piercing scream of “murder” rippled through the diner. The body found stabbed, bloody and covered in sprinkles, Gloria’s murderer can’t have gotten far… But can your team deduce what led to the Death in the Diner?

In this interactive murder mystery event, your team will interview the murder’s suspects, examine the evidence, and try to avoid the sneaky red herrings. Put your sleuthing skills to the test and work together to catch the killer.

Get involved!
The University of Kent players is looking for new members to work towards the production! There are plenty of ways to get involved from acting to front of house and tech support. We also have an exciting improvisation workshop from Kent alumni the Pantaloons which you can sign up for today!

Meet up with fellow actors and theatre enthusiasts, and make new friends from across the university and enrich your life at Kent. You don’t need any previous experience to get involved, just be welcoming, friendly and supportive of your peers!

Death in the Diner Auditions
We have a range of roles available for this show and we would love to have you involved! You do not need any previous experience and rehearsals will provide you with the tools to act and improvise as one of our devious suspects. We will be holding auditions for this production on the following dates:

Wednesday 16 March | 17:30 – 19:30 | Keynes senior common room (KSCR)
Tuesday 22 March | 12:30 – 14:00 | Eliot College common room

For more information please get in touch with us on the email below.

Pantaloons improvisation workshop – Saturday 2 April | 10:00 – 13:00
Come along for a half day workshop with professional improv group the Pantaloons. Learn new, fun techniques in a series of improvisation games and activities. This session is open to all members and non-members for a small fee.

To sign up or to get more information please email players@kent.ac.uk

How to get involved
If you would like to get involved or have an interest in acting, directing, technical directing or anything theatrical get in touch with us on players@kent.ac.uk

We also have a new Players Microsoft Teams channel for updates, chat and social gatherings.

You can also follow us on social media for regular updates and events!

Instagram: @unikentplayers
Facebook: @unikentplayers
Twitter: @unikentplayers

We are deeply saddened and concerned by the invasion of Ukraine and our thoughts are with any of our students and staff who have been affected by the escalating conflict. 

Over the past week we have identified several staff and students from Ukraine and Russia and have taken immediate steps to support these individuals. Additionally, we have been supporting students based in both countries to ensure we can get them to a safe place as quickly as possible. Teams are also tracing any further staff or students who have travelled to the regions to make sure they can access the help they need.

We understand this is a worrying time and we are here to help. Here are a range of support services available for both staff and students, including:

• Employee Assistance Programme
• Kent Student Support and Wellbeing
• Student LGBTQ+ Support Pages
• The LGBTQ+ Staff Network
• BAME Staff Network
• BAME Student Network
• Student Support and Wellbeing’s blog about being mindful of your mental health during world events.
• Wellbeing Drop-in Sessions for students
• Managing uncertainty and anxiety caused by world events
• Helping children cope with world conflict
• Publicity Calendar special – Ukraine conflict – Our Employee Assistance Programme are hosting two webinars. The first one on the 10 March is to help you manage uncertainty and anxiety caused by world events. The second on the 15 March is to help children cope with world conflict. 

We will provide further updates once we are clear on any developments that impact our students, staff, or university.

You are invited to attend the (online) Kent Global Showcase – 16 March 2022 

Dr Anthony Manning, Director and Dean for Global and Lifelong Learning explains more here: 

Register to attend 

Professor Richard Reece will outline the next steps for consultation on the approach to Global Engagement at Kent
This year, the Kent Global Showcase event will be held from 14:30-16:00 (UK time) on the 16 March. Colleagues from across university will provide an overview of some of the current global engagement initiatives in focus and examples of good practice from our divisions. At the event Professor Richard Reece will outline the next steps for consultation on the approach to Global Engagement at Kent. 

During the event we will also hold the next session of our Solidarity with Ukraine group. This will provide an update on the available support organised by the University for both our staff and students. 

Spotlight Sessions
During the session there will be a spotlight session delivered by Kent’s Catherine Morris, Environmental Advisor, on the important intersection between sustainability and internationalisation. Emma Marku, Internationalisation Officer and Laura Charleton, Senior Lecturer in LSSJ, will also focus on virtual mobility, exchanges and Summer/Winter schools.  

Attending the Showcase will offer you an excellent opportunity to gain updates from Kent colleagues relating to Partnerships, Recruitment and Alumni engagement.  

As always, there will be lots of opportunities to ask questions and identify avenues for support during the event.  

Register to attend

From Philip Pothen | Director of Engagement

Among the groups most affected by the pandemic have been our schoolchildren. The impacts of home schooling and stop-start lockdowns, the effects of mask-wearing, social distancing, bubbles and other measures in the classroom and the lack of continuity and predictability in their learning have disrupted their lives and their educational development.

As we finally but tentatively emerge from Covid, our thoughts turn to how we can begin to make up for the missed learning, the lost fun, creativity and opportunities that schoolchildren and young people have missed out on over the last two years.

One of the most ambitious and exciting initiatives to address this challenge is Kent County Council’s Reconnect programme. It represents a significant commitment to our county’s schoolchildren and young people and, as a university with a similar commitment to the learning, progression and skills of everyone in our region, I believe this initiative fully deserves our support.

It was this commitment that drove our wish to apply to host and deliver an event which would help address some of these challenges. The recent news that we are being funded to deliver a Youth Summit is fantastic for the university but great for the programme and our young people too as I think we have a great deal to offer.

In summary, the Kent Youth Summit will be a vibrant multiplatform event co-designed with Kent County Council and with young people themselves for young people living in our county. Over five days at the end of June our Summit will address many of the negative impacts of the pandemic, reconnecting young people to a world of learning, engagement and creativity and providing a platform for them to express themselves on subjects of importance to them.

Typically, learning activities will be designed to take place in the weeks leading up to the event, with engagement building up to and culminating in a week-long, on-campus Youth Summit, involving keynote speakers, debates, competitions, exhibition spaces and much more. These activities – some delivered by our academics and some by students – will be linked to real-world themes underpinned by high-quality teaching and world-leading research expertise.

We’ll also amplify these activities across the county through the work of KMTV, through our own communications channels and through regional media so that as we emerge from the pandemic we can ensure we recognise, reward, and celebrate young people’s efforts and achievements, and ensure that their voices are heard.

It’s great to receive good news – but the hard work starts now! Watch out for regular updates on the Summit as we bring plans together and do get in touch if you think your work could be a part of it.

Dr Bashir Abu-Manneh | Head of School of English

On 24 February, the School of English (in association with the iCCi and the British Council) hosted Abdulrazak Gurnah, our own Nobel Laureate in Literature, for an “In Conversation” dialogue with Amy Sackville and me. The Gulbenkian Theatre was packed and the event was livestreamed.

With characteristic charm, generosity, and straight talking, Gurnah elaborated on key aspects of his worldview and fiction. We discussed the problems of departure and arrival, his sense of what belonging means, how justice informs his work, his critical intervention in English literary studies, his teaching and its relation to his fiction writing, and telling stories that need to be told. Gurnah talked about why stories about neglected lives and forgotten people matter, about the human effort to survive in the face of adversity and hostility, and about the importance of travel, journeying, and understanding the cosmopolitan histories of pre-colonial East Africa. He also foregrounded the particular dimensions of forced displacement and the human responsibility to provide refuge for those escaping war, state violence, and terror.

“Writing made my life feel useful and fulfilling”, he affirmed. As his work captured loss, tragedy, and past injury, it facilitated a process of retrieval and restitution. His work, he said, thus lingers on necessity and tries to get at truth: “It always feels very important to me as a writer to say that I am speaking as truthfully as I can”. So he challenges the exclusions and ideologies of power and insists on universal human needs. If human cultures can be “ugly, monstrous things” and an unexamined sense of belonging risks self-delusions, remaining cautious and open to the experience of others can save us from narcissistic self-regard.

After such rich ruminations on literature and writing, I left the event thinking that Gurnah’s singular literary achievement feels truly historic for Kent. His impact on our School of English and on our critical and creative practices felt deep and enduring. For me, Gurnah epitomises the best of Kent: a confident educational institution committed to neglected voices and democratising narratives and publicly engaged in the pursuit of global justice. What better civic mission for our University?

If you missed this event you can view our livestream here.

Get involved with the leadership development programme

T&OD are pleased to share with you details of a new leadership development programme and invite you to identify proposed participant to take place in the first cohort, starting in April 2022.

The leadership development offer has been reviewed and a gap for operational and first-line managers developing into a leadership role was identified.

The programme ‘Stepping up’ is proposed to address this gap.

The Stepping Up programme has been designed for members of staff with general people management experience over and above basic procedural knowledge and skills. These individuals will either be new staff or have been identified as having the potential to progress to a more senior management/leadership role. 

The brochure outlines the programme, including session dates and programme content. This is aligned with current and future organisational requirements, contemporary leadership and management practice. 

The programme is open to academic and professional services colleagues.

There will be a maximum of 15 people on the first intake, with plans to run further cohorts starting in both September and January. 

Within the brochure you will find a nomination form which needs to be filled out by the applicant and a statement of support will be required by their manager (Word version here). 

Please complete and return the form to the T&OD team (Ldev@kent.ac.uk) by 1st April 2022. They will confirm the cohort by the 8 April 2022. 

Join us on March 23 from 16:00 for the latest in the Stephen Gray lecture series.

The Stephen Gray Lectures are a series of talks named after one of Canterbury’s most prominent scientists. Gray had a broad range of interests spanning from solar astronomy to palaeontology but he is best known for his seminal experiments demonstrating electrical conduction and insulation (1729). The lecture takes place annually at the University of Kent’s main campus in Canterbury. It is organised by the university’s Division of Natural Sciences.

This March the series bring to you a talk by Professor Dame Jane Francis. This free hybrid event will be held on Zoom and in person (Covid permitting) with an opportunity to put forward your questions. Join us on March 23 from 16:00-17:30. During this public talk Dame Jane will discuss the topics of ‘Greenhouse to Icehouse: fossils of forests and dinosaurs amid icesheets of Antarctica’.

Submit your questions for Professor Dame Jane Francis

After the lecture, Professor Francis will be joined by a panel of experts from the University of Kent for a round-table discussion of questions posed by audience members. If you have questions for our panel of for Professor Francis, you can forward them to Natsnews@kent.ac.uk in advance of the event. There will also be the opportunity to ask questions during the event itself.

About Professor Dame Jane Francis

Professor Francis is Director of the British Antarctic Survey, a research centre of the Natural Environment Research Council (UKRI-NERC). She is involved with international polar organisations, such as the Antarctic Treaty and European Polar Board, and on several advisory boards of national polar programmes.

Jane Francis is a geologist by training, with research interests in past climate change. She has undertaken research projects at the universities of Southampton, London, Leeds and Adelaide, using fossil plants to determine the change from greenhouse to icehouse climates in the Polar Regions over the past 100 million years. She has undertaken over 15 scientific expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica in search of fossil forests.

Jane was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG) in recognition of services to UK polar science and diplomacy. She was also awarded the UK Polar Medal by H.M. The Queen is Chancellor of the University of Leeds, and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Tickets for this event are free, and you can book an in-person or virtual ticket on our Eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/stephen-gray-lecture-series-guest-starring-professor-dame-jane-francis-tickets-265079719577

Professor Darren Griffin is raising money for the Donor Conception Network and Fertility Network UK by running… A LOT! Darren is a self-professed non athlete, but is challenging himself for these amazing causes.

Infertility affects 1 in 6 people of reproductive age all over the world. The Fertility Network UK is a unique national charity that provides free support for people experiencing fertility related issues. The charity has been running for over 2 years and provides a sorely needed, unbiased service that helps people deal with the repercussions of infertility.

The Donor Conception Network is a supportive charity network for families with children conceived with donated sperm, eggs, and embryos; alongside those thinking about, or undergoing donor conception procedures and for donor conceived people themselves. The Target:

• The Brighton Marathon on April 10^th
• 9x5K park runs – 3 down 7 to go!
• 2 half marathons the first February 27^th!!!!!
• 10 miles race – Completed in Canterbury
• 3x10km runs – One is Ashford already down!
• Virtual walk “Lands End to John O’ Groats” – 400 miles done!

Dig deep into your pockets, dive behind the sofa and support Darren to reach his target.

Follow Darren on social media as the plan unfolds and use the hashtag #NextGenFertility.

DONATE NOW.