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

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