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Wellington, August 22, 2022
A new book by Dr Teresa Heinz Housel from the School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing of Massey University examines mental health in higher education.
‘Mental Health among Higher Education Faculty, Administrators, and Graduate Students,’ addresses how academics who experience mental distress or mental illness are afraid to speak out because of cultural stigma and fears of career repercussions.
The book argues that the reluctance of academics to publicly disclose their struggles complicates attempts to understand their experiences through research or popular media, or to develop targeted mental health resources and institutional policies.
Dr Housel says that this volume builds on existing studies in the greatly under-researched area of mental health in higher education.
“The chapters’ research findings will help institutions communicate about mental health in culturally competent and people-centred ways, create work environments conducive to mental wellbeing, and support their employees who have mental health challenges,” she said.
Discussions of health and wellness, equity, workload expectations and productivity, and campus diversity must also cover chronic illness and disability, which includes mental health and mental illness, Dr Housel said.
Source of Inspiration
She was inspired to write the book as a result of her observations of how mental health issues are often stigmatised in academia.
“Academic roles can be fertile ground for mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression. Such roles are frequently demanding, requiring employees to juggle many responsibilities between work and home, while maintaining a high standard of teaching and research,” Dr Housel said.
According to her, if someone has a tendency for common mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression, they can be triggered in this situation.
Her writing was also inspired by her own experience with anxiety.
In the book’s preface, she poignantly describes how she was raised by a single father in the 1970s and 1980s in rural Ohio, United States.
“My parents had a very acrimonious divorce. This led to a sometimes-chaotic childhood in an anxious household with worry over money, housing, and relationships. I was also the first person in my family to attend university, so I was almost solely on my own as I navigated through undergraduate and postgraduate education,” she said.
Dr Housel channelled her anxiety into academia but admits that her coping strategy didn’t work well by the time she reached her early 40s, eventually seeking help from an anxiety counsellor who helped her find healthier strategies.
New strategies in New Zealand
“After I moved to New Zealand in 2013, I learnt healthy ways to manage anxiety through exercise, hobbies, and time with family. These strategies have allowed me to rediscover the great joy that I experience in the constant learning and creativity of my teaching and research,” she said.
Dr Housel hopes that the first-hand experiences of many of the book’s contributing authors and their research respondents will help others know that they are far from alone if they are experiencing mental health or distress.
“This support will help counter the stigma around mental health in academia. The chapters’ findings and research-based best practices can help institutions better understand the current crisis around mental health in tertiary education and develop institutional policies and empathic communication around mental health support. This book is needed now more than ever,” Dr Housel said.
“The contributing authors and I wrote our book chapters during COVID-19 lockdowns. As we continue through year three of the global pandemic, the chapters confirm that academics in New Zealand, and overseas, are experiencing mental health challenges because of burn-out, precarious employment, workplace bullying, and other challenges. Many institutions around the world focus mental health support on their students, but acute attention is also needed for their staff,” she said.
