Visit the newly launched U-Flourish Centre for Student Mental Health Research website, here.
About us
We are a multi-disciplinary group of researchers based at Queen’s University and partnering with Queen's Student Wellness Services (SWS) to understand how best to support student well-being and mental health.
In September 2018, we began the U-Flourish Student Well-being and Academic Success Study via an online survey to improve our understanding of why some first-year students "flourish" while others do not. Since then, we have heard back from thousands of undergraduate students and continue to invite these students to participate bi-annually in our online surveys as we follow them through their university journey.
Building on the success of the U-Flourish Survey, our program of research has since expanded to include new offerings to support student well-being and mental health, thanks to a philanthropic gift from the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation.
These offerings include a suite of digital well-being resources including digital apps to help students manage stress, anxiety, sleep, and binge eating, and a digital technology called i-spero to help students to self-monitor their well-being (coming Fall 2021). We have also developed a for-credit, interdisciplinary online course, The Science of Mental Health, Well-being and Resiliency, which focuses on understanding different aspects of mental health and well-being, improving students' mental health literacy, and encouraging timely and appropriate help-seeking.
The U-Flourish research program continues to expand, and we are collaborating with other Canadian and UK universities. The Canadian work is funded by grants from CIHR and philanthropic Foundations, whilst a grant from the Medical Research Council (MRC) in the UK is funding this work at the Universities of Oxford, Exeter, Cardiff, King's College London, Newcastle, and Southampton under the banner Nurture-U. This partnership will allow us to continue to compare student well-being needs and outcomes between universities and countries To learn more about the Nurture-U partnership project, click here.
Publications and Articles
Funding
The U-Flourish program of research has been continuously funded by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Rossy Family Foundation. The development and implementation of the Digital Well-Being Resources, Online Mental Health Literacy Course, and Digitally Enhanced Care Pathway are funded by the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation.
We thank the following campus and community partners for providing FLEX credit and food incentives for the student engagement campaign: Queen's University's Division of Student Affairs and Domino's Pizza, respectively. We also thank all Queen's University Professors, Departments, and student groups that have supported the U-Flourish student engagement campaigns.
Connect with us
For more information about the U-Flourish program of research, please feel free to contact our research team at flourish@queensu.ca.
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