 I'm the editor-in-chief of the College View here at the Media Production Society in DCU and I'm delighted to welcome you to the livestream for the DCU Care and Connect launch. I'm joined by a host of fabulous people this morning and we're really excited to have a great chat about what Care and Connect is and what it's going to do for DCU students. I'm going to start by talking to Claire Bowen, who's the Dean of Students here, Dr. Claire Bowen. Claire, do you want to tell us what this event is about, what Care and Connect is and really why we're here this morning? Absolutely. And first of all, just to thank you for inviting us to come. It's really great to be here and to be able to speak to the student body on this horrible rainy morning. So over the last number of years, we've done a lot of research into students' physical and mental health to see, you know, what keeps them well or what makes them unwell. As part of that work, we surveyed all the students, both postgraduate and undergrad, and we got over 3,000 responses to that survey with ideas about what we need to do in the university to try and improve the mental and physical health of our students, what's working well and what's not working well. So the result of that was Care and Connect. We've put together a plan of action which will be forever. This is not a once-off, this is something that we want to create as a culture within the university and give the students really the possibility to, number one, take care of themselves and opportunities that they can kind of take part in things which will mind their mental and their physical health. So that's what it's all about. We've got a whole host of people here this morning. So obviously, we've Claire here, who's the Dean of Students, joined by Helena Ahern, who is a counselling psychologist and the head of counselling and personal development services. Good morning, Helena. Good morning, Emma. This is a fantastic project and it's a great thing to be involved in and DCU counselling is something that I know so many students will be involved in. So what is DCU counselling's part of DCU Care and Connect? Well, I suppose when we were looking at the research, while it's good to have professional services available for students to avail of, such as the counselling service, the health service, student advice, etc. We do know that everybody has a role to play in not only student but staff well-being. And so we wanted to create a community that everybody can play a very significant part. And sometimes we don't realise that. Sometimes we don't realise that actually a simple act of kindness for a person who's just having a kind of a tough day can really help that person and say, oh, she actually smiled at me or she acknowledged me. So there's the level of trying to create a community that will reach out and support students in a good way. So we're also joined here this morning by Paul Byrne who's the head of athletics in DCU, Frank Quinn who's a staff nurse at the Student Health Centre and Sarah Fitzpatrick who's the vice president for well-being. I'm going to go back to Claire for just a second. Claire, how are students going to see this project and this programme? It's all well and good. We're here today with a fabulous setup and, you know, we get the emails once a week. But how are our students who maybe don't engage all of the time with the communications from the university? How are those students going to see the initiative and feel the difference on campus? Absolutely. And that will be a challenge with the student body this large. We must try and make sure that everyone knows there's a difference and feels that difference. So we're doing some different levels. At a policy level, we've been looking at all our student-facing policies. Let's say this summer, for example, we look to the Secretary of Miss Conduct policy. We look to the Respect and Dignity Policy and they've all been revised. But more importantly, we've put staff in place to support students who feel they've been bullied, who feel they're not being respected. So we have about 25 members of staff trained on sexual misconduct issues. So a student can come to a member of staff, they know what to do, they know how to support the student and the same with respect and dignity. So that's kind of, that's at the core because if you don't have solid policies in the university, well then actually we're wasting our time. From a staff perspective, both academic and professional staff and administrative staff across the campuses were offering a range of training. So as an example, staff over the last few months have been taking part in autism-friendly training. So helping staff understand how they would work with students who may have autism and may just need to be worked with a little bit differently or spoken to a little bit differently in support of a little bit more. We're also offering, which Alina has worked on over the last number of months, training on dealing with students in distress or at risk. So very often it's not us that students will come to. In the first instance, it might be a lecturer, it might be the chairperson of the program, and they need to know how to support a student and how to signpost them to the support services. So that's the policy, that's the staff training, and then on a practical level, on an everyday basis. Bad news, you'd be getting many more emails than once a week from me, so that's the start. But look even today downstairs, you've got reflexology going on, you've yoga going on, there's a table which talks about nutrition. So between the Students Union and Student Support and Development, we'll be putting out a number of events and initiatives that students can take part in to start feeling what it's like to feel good and be well. So that's the plan. It's such a fantastic initiative. So we're going to start, everybody here is going to have a little chat about what their job is within the program and what they can do to help students. I'm going to go back to Alina for a second. I come from a generation of people who are mental health obsessed. Some people will say they love talking about mental health, they want to fix mental health. Some people talk about it so much, you'd almost become overwhelmed by it, that there's so many ways that you can be fixed and that you can get help and it's okay to not feel okay and all this kind of stuff. But how do students go about seeking the right support and the right guidance about their health in general, but as well their mental health? That's a good question. I think because we can have that information overload, I think it's helpful just to take a bit of time, 10 minutes of particular week to step back and have quite a time, quieten yourself down, nothing major, but just quieten yourself down and have a look and see how am I doing from the point of view of my well-being? Do I feel a little bit too stressed? And if so, to listen to yourself, if I can do one thing that would actually really help myself, what would that one thing be? So you can't do everything at the one time and a person can really feel stressed, that they have to feel I have to do a checklist to feel well. So while all that information is good, pick one thing that if I did that, that would significantly increase my capacity to cope and that could be to do a walk, simple walk, nothing too, sometimes when we take on a new behaviour, we develop a very complex plan and actually we spend so much time planning it, we don't do it, and that in itself is stressing. So a small plan that's simple, that's realistic, that's a bit of fun and we know from research the easier you make it for you to change your behaviour, the more likely you're going to do it. Because if you are struggling and if you are kind of in a hole and not feeling great and I know coming into the winter months people can kind of tend to struggle more, it's darker and I mean like you're looking out of that weather this morning, you wouldn't really want to get out of the bed. You can look at all the information that's out there and think oh my god like Otto I need to go and buy a gym membership and do this and do that, but it's actually the small things that you can do every single day that'll make your life so much easier and your day a little bit brighter. That's right and so you know a simple plan for your academic work and a little bit of a plan for your recreational time, I know that all sounds kind of very logical and difficult to do when you're feeling emotionally upset. So that's why if you do a little something that you'd like to do, such as eating a little bit better, looking after your sleep, maybe flag it to a friend, somebody you trust, listen I'm having a little bit of trouble like that, sometimes articulating it out can actually ease the thing because another person might say oh god I feel like that too, so it's not actually just a person and their own, many people feel a number of these kind of things, especially when our stress is up we might, our disturbance of sleep might happen. And it's nice to have somebody if you're saying right I'm gonna try and walk two nights a week or I'm gonna try to eat better, somebody will you split the groceries with me and we'll do it together. Yeah I think we really underestimate the power that other people and other friends can have on our lives when it comes to our mental health sometimes. That's exactly it Emma, that's exactly it because even sometimes people would say oh I don't want, I wouldn't do it for myself but maybe if my friend Emma's going to call on me at six o'clock maybe I put on the runners and let's go for the walk. We are very lucky to have such a fantastic counselling department here in DCU. How do students avail of it and what do students get if they approach the council and say look I need to speak to a psychologist and I need some counselling. What is it that students avail of and what can, what do they get basically? Okay so the core thing is one-to-one counselling right, so how that's structured is that when a student would like to avail of us they'd email counselling at DCU.ie and we get the person registered, it only takes 10 or 15 minutes and then the first meeting we would obviously listen to what exactly has brought that student, that DCU student to us at this point. What's really troubling them right now? Now there could be a range of things could be happening for a person but what we'd be looking for is what is the thing that's causing the most distress that's kind of bringing that person outside of their window of tolerance and capacity to cope so that if we did something for that particular issue everything else would become easier. So it's very much a collaborative kind of process to find out what exactly the student needs that would really help them in the present moment to get them more grounded and more feeling I can do this. So that would be the focus and once we have agreed a plan then we would have some sessions to focus on that. Now we do other things such as workshops which would be on how to manage stress, mindfulness, the body project which a lot of people have have a difficulty to with you know our body image and all of that. So we have also online cognitive behavioral mental health and well-being programs that students can do on their own and that can be very important Emma because some people might be going oh I don't think I'll go to the counseling service they might go to student advice they might more readily go over to the health center they might go to the students union so this is why the system is really important that we can have a stepping stone so they might go over to Sarah and then Sarah might encourage them you're not too bad in counseling so it's all right you can go over there. And like Collina was saying everybody's kind of connected and Sarah you're kind of on the front lines really as the vice president for well-being the first thing most students would have seen like first years post grads to anybody who's coming on the campus for the first time is the students union for you guys being on the front lines of student communication what is it that you do in relation to Care and Connect that can help students? So each of the members in the student union we sit on different committees in Care and Connect to always give that student perspective based on students coming to us and talking about us and what they need and what they want but as you were saying we are that kind of those five visible people that seem to not be able to walk through campus without seeing so we do have that responsibility to promote different services in DCU and as you know was saying we do have that responsibility to kind of encourage students and take away that stigma kind of sometimes surrounding accessing certain services like we'd have students coming off to us and be like look I'm really struggling with my mental health and I'd be like well you know what about counselling it's free and they're like oh no I don't want to be dramatic like I don't need counselling but you kind of have to work with them to take away that reluctance I guess to to get help and to see different people in the university because you know they're very nice as we see and that can be a bit scary for students but I guess we're kind of almost like their peers because we were students just a month ago yeah because it might it might feel like you know sending an email to counselling or to student support would seem might not might be that kind of step that that puts people off but when you guys are as visible as you are in your office is is right down below the floor that we are in the U today it seems an awful lot easier to go and talk to somebody who's a couple of years older than you or the same age as you and say look I'm really struggling is that something that you really enjoy about the job that you're you're able to have that connection with students I think it's nice when students come to you that mightn't have took that step yet to go to the health centre to go to counselling or even to ssnd as well and you can kind of encourage them to get help and then that ends up really benefiting them it's nice to see that and to feel like we're you know there is actually a use for us being here because we actually are helping even though we're not fully qualified like people here to actually help them we can encourage them to get that help. Besides being a portal of communication to all of these wonderful people here what kind of events what kind of support will the SU have throughout this year and hopefully in years to come as Claire was saying to support students whether it be their physical health their mental health anything like that. Yeah so even in the last month we really wanted to focus on a kind of sense of belonging because that can really affect your mental health if you're if you're not settling in well in DCU you haven't really found that group of people and so we've been doing daytime events they're a little more accessible to you know commuters students and first-year students like you wouldn't sometimes necessarily feel comfortable going to nighttime events on your own not knowing anyone else there but we've been putting on events such as like quizzes and encouraging people to come along and we'll put them in a team or a pottery and we did see that people come alone and be like scared and be like oh god I don't know anyone here but then did leave chatting to a group of students and like looking very happy and I think that's our our main focus kind of having events that people can come to alone meet people there and then have that group there that they can then leave it. If you were if you could say anything let's say to first-year students or students maybe transferred into the college or people maybe in second and third year who just didn't really settle in properly and and find a group of friends or might be struggling and instead of going to an event and they're heading home and sitting alone in their student accommodation or they're commuting and they feel really isolated what would be the one thing that you'd say to them now with all of the events and everything that you've got on? Well if I had to speak from personal experience I didn't really settle in properly into this year in the first couple of years because COVID and you know sitting at home it's hard to make friends and settle in but one thing that really got me settled in was joining clubs and societies because they have even in events and like small little like get-togethers or even if you're interested in photography you can join a photo society and it's when it's a college full of you know 20,000 students give or take it's hard to find people like like yourself or like my people that have similar hobbies but clubs and societies offer that where you can go to things and it's relaxed and it's nice and it's student-led as well so to to do what they want in those societies as well. So obviously we've talked a lot about how important your mental health is but your mental health is very much connected to your physical health and Paul Burn is with us he's the head of athletics. Now Paul I wouldn't run after a boss if I were late for it. I've never been known for my running but I cannot get over the amount of people specifically over the pandemic who were like it changed my life. I was feeling awful and then I went for a run and now I'm like superhuman. Am I just missing it or is there something do I need to give it a proper goal? Well luckily next week we have a brand new uh well not brand new it actually did exist before DC social runners so I kind of explained a little bit about that and what that entails and through the support of SS&E and the Whole Care and Connect project DC sport as well as the Sports Centre and DC athletics it's really it's it's been in the background unfortunately it fell off a little bit but it really ties back to what Claire and thus the Whole Care and Connect is doing so I suppose DC athletics is just a club a cog in the wheel of all the great clubs and societies that are in DC. We are quite competitive I suppose and like unlike maybe like the G18s. Fantastically competitive like you've got some of the athletes in the country from Olympians right down so look we are very lucky but I think sometimes we may miss a trick there around getting participation level people because running is so accessible it's so easy to get involved minimum barriers to entry all you need is a pair of runners really. So the social running group is designed like Sarah was saying it's a daytime thing so for students and staff it's going to be every Tuesday and Thursday at one o'clock in Albert College Park or kind of around the campus in those kind of green spaces or even just around the kind of paths and stuff as well so it's student led via a really good guy our former club captain Michael Murphy is going to be coaching it so it's open to everyone Claire has kindly sent it out in her weekly newsletter last week so I would really encourage people that have never ran before try it out it's popping pop out anyone it's popping pop out there's no there's no set agenda it's there will be many sessions I suppose and it will be as the weeks progress probably beginners group slash kind of maybe an intermediate group that's how it did run before and it's very laid back very inclusive very fun zero barriers to entry basically just join the club and that's it and not only is it a great way for people to get to know each other it's a great way for people to get to know the area exactly you could be a first year coming on oh god I love running but I've moved to Dublin from God knows where around the country 100 is it safe for me to run is it not it's a just a great way for people to get to know each other and to get to know the place because DCU is in such a great spot 100% and like Albert College is just so we're so blessed to have it I was at the horizon or the higher options event last week and someone asked me about what green space we have in DCU I was like huge park right in the middle of the campus so we really we really are lucky to have that and then obviously the sports grounds pitches across the way in that as well but it'll predominantly be in Albert College and you'll normally see a crew of distance runners flying around there at some stage during the each day and so they know the ins and outs of all that part but some students may never go in there and it's again just to be in a green space go for a walk like Helena said okay this is running orientated but you can run walk run walk until your fitness gets up there and like that's really the whole idea of this the social you mentioned accessibility yeah because like sports and fitness it really took off over the pandemic online classes gym memberships and of course with the cost of living for some students who are here and who are paying a fortune to live in Dublin and live near DCU go into the gym if if they're a swimmer and maybe it's too expensive to go to the pool or something like that or to take a class all you really need is a pair of runners and that's what's great about it and even look we'll encourage people to be there on the Tuesday and Thursday come and go as you like but there's 500 days in the week where you can go for a run by yourself or go with a crew and organically we're hoping that people will start to join together like it was predominantly a lot of staff last time and we're really just hoping if this helps or you know pushing out through the newsletter and our social media and stuff and through the SU that we just really get more students because again the lettuce club or maybe perceived to be a little bit higher level and and be quite competitive but this is the complete opposite we want everyone to be able to join at a very beginner level have no fear about there's not going to be turned away or anything like that and then ultimately over time build up fitness enjoy it more the first few weeks of any running session or any running group or hell maybe that's what i'm that maybe that's what's hidden in my way committed long enough but it's never easy it's never ever and sometimes it never gets easier but i think the enjoyment the the the kind of headspace all the usual stuff that's associated with physical activity and it just so happens that running is is so accessible and is well documented over the last few years like things with park run like free as well that that people have really got behind so yeah look it's it's essentially a mini park run that will be kind of operating and running here so Claire what i'm really getting the the vibe across the board here is that it's dealing with it in a positive mindset rather than oh god i have to get up i have to you know i might need to speak to somebody in counseling i might need to do this i might need to it's actually just take little steps every single day to start to feel better the fact that it's in a positive mindset is what's really striking me here and you you you hit the nail on the head that's exactly it as you said earlier on like mental health can get so complex what do i need to do do i need to go to counseling do i need to join the gym do i need to do meditation in the morning and most of us just are so busy every day we don't have the time to put into it but if it's the simple things that Selena says like take that five minutes and say okay what will put me in a better place today for me it's pilates that's i end my day in pilates every day and look at you know sorry the running thing just doesn't do it for me either but that's my half an hour piece and that's my switch off before i go home every single evening um or you know the run the park for those who like the running so you're you're absolutely right it's not complex but we we need to learn we need to get into a habit of taking care of ourselves i think and then show students maybe how easy it is and help them to make it easy for themselves whether it's the physical or the mental health and a part of that we're going to go to frank now francis staff nurse here in glass nevin at the student health center frank looking after your body is really important and i know for a lot of students coming to college means for the first time you have to book your own doctor's appointment which is is terrifying to some people yeah what is the student health center who are the people that are there and what can students do if they if they have a problem if they have an issue or if they just want to get themselves checked out grand um so the student health center there's one on glass nevin campus and there's one down in st patrick's campus it's a nurse led doctor supported service that provides physical gp care to the students so if they have a cough a cold uh injury a wound any physical ailment essentially if they need a prescription or a referral they can come into us and we can help get so hard essentially um they contact us primarily through email so health services at dcu.ie takes out the fear of the phone call a lot of people my age and it's easier for us to it's easy for us to miss a call unfortunately because we're a very just 20 times not students we're a very in-demand service so if the email is sent we will get to it we will see it um and as you say it can be frightening for people to take that first step but oh my god i'm booking my first doctor's appointment and so anyone who's actually come in to meet me will realize i tried to take all that formalness away and it's a very friendly open environment i tried to make us no one generally tends to want to come to the health center because it means they're sick most of the time so we appreciate that and we try and make it as easy for them to say okay well we think this is what's wrong with you we'll get you and see the doctor who'll be able to charge you x y and z and hopefully in x amount of days you'll be feeling better and if you're not we'll get you back in and see you again because it is and i'll tell myself i was very well looked after by the student health center down in paths a couple of weeks ago and i've never felt more supported or in a better position going in because going to see the doctor it's sometimes for some people some people are terrified of it yeah and i was so i felt so good going in and i left and i felt so good leaving and i can't actually preach the student health center to students enough at the minute what would be some practical advice you have for students who are staying healthy like if they come into you now and say look i'm just feeling a bit down i don't have them really been looking after myself i've come back to college i have to cook for myself and see all this what would be some practical things that you would say to me or to anybody who's coming into you now so as everyone around the coaches have said it's it's not rocket science and i know some of the students listening are listening watching me talk i'm gonna roll their eyes when i say um make sure you're drinking enough water that's number one i'm really bad the car won't run without petrol you won't run without water that does not include coffee or tea okay that is separate tea and coffee actually cost you water they make you pass more fluid out of you so although you're thinking you're coming in you're getting your coffee and you're getting your bit of energy it's actually costing your hydration so aim for two liters a day there's plenty of water dispensers around the campus get a reusable bottle and just as the guys say even just aim to drink this bottle every day like you come in at nine o'clock by the time you leave this should be empty and then when you get a drink once aim to right i'm gonna try and drink it twice in a day i'd love to preach and say go out and buy good food fresh food but i understand the cost of different crisis the sheer cost of the food is going to be a huge thing so your diets aren't fantastic in the majority so if i can even suggest just take a multivitamin okay that's the simplest thing to get most of what you need in tears because as you look outside there we don't get sunshine we're not getting any investment from here until after the exams essentially this is what we could be looking at so everybody and i get a lot should i take vitamin d every single person in ireland from now until about april should take vitamin d and at the very least if you take multivitamin it'll be in there and it'll make you feel better and the final thing i can say is and it's even simpler than everything is make sure you're getting enough sleep and now when i say sleep i don't mean go to bed at 11 o'clock and sit there scroll and then check on all the socials it's the one or two o'clock which most of the students say they do i mean sarah's feeling personally attacked there on the end of the couch is for the students who are commuting especially both ways because that's tough it is like i've had i've had a couple of friends who've done the commute in the last two years and and the way that they they talk about the toll it's had on their body is it's you wouldn't think it no but you're going to you're you have to concentrate if you're driving especially you're physically have to concentrate on an hour plus driving at the start and the end of the day five days a week potentially so never mind that you're studying undergrad masters and phd programs on top of that you have to give yourselves time to physically switch off and sleep properly so in an ideal world i'd have you so i'll put down your phones at 10 o'clock okay in bed by 11 o'clock okay because you will need that hour of no screen time to tell your brain okay it's time to sleep sitting in bed scrolling is the worst type of sleepies could get so one to two liters a day try to get a multivitamin and plenty of sleep plenty of sleep and for students who are who are coming back who may not have had a check-up all summer or in a couple of years is there any what are kind of the common medical things that you've got students coming to you at the minute that maybe there might be ways of combating that now so that they don't end up in your office in april or may before they go home for the summer yeah yeah um uti eyes is a huge one especially for people with vaginas unfortunately um one of my previous tips will help with this is just increase your fluid intake um pass your on as soon as you can after having intercourse another thing we see a lot of is a little condition called scabies which is a little itchy itchy mites that people get under skin it's highly transmissible highly treatable but if you feel yourself getting itching particularly around the web in your hands just come into the health center or go into the pharmacy you can actually treat it over the counter you don't need to see us and we see a lot of students coming in with it as the year progresses it's one of the every total level colleges at the high incidence of and it's not really discussed people come into me and say i've got this funny little ration it's really itchy and i say oh it's this and they're like um oh my god that wasn't what i wanted to say i just can't think of it no i'm drawing a blank i'm sorry that's all right that's all right good so people need to drink water yeah sleep multi-vitamin and if they have any lingering issues just email the health center basically yeah we're not going to bite i like to think we're kind of friendly and we're not going to say bad people come in and say oh this is stupid or oh it's probably nothing and it could be nothing but i'm not going to give out to them for being nothing it would be if it make my day if someone comes into me and they're fine it means you're actually grand you can head on back you know and but the vast majority of people who come into me at one simple little thing we don't see them as one little problem so you might come into me with a cut on your finger i'm not just going to say okay let's treat your finger i'm going to ask you how are you are you sleeping are you eating are you drinking your water i try and i know the colleagues down the path as well we try and make every contact count with students to where we try and see you from as best we can't head to toe and to get you as sorted as we can so that you don't keep coming not that we don't there will be people who are struggling who may not even realize how bad they feel until somebody asks them yeah and it's as well it's when someone else says i believe you okay this is something that we need to talk about this is what we need to treat the relief i see on their faces when they think okay i'm not crazy yeah or okay this person believes me or he doesn't think i'm silly for worrying about this it's completely if if you're worried about anything get in touch with us if you want what is the email for the health center how can we get in contact health services at dcu.ie is the glass never known and then pats i believe is spd.healthcenter.ie and if that one is wrong i'm so sorry we will make sure that all of the contact information for everybody here today is available on the nps instagram and we'll try our best to put it in the bio of this stream now there are people looking to get in contact with you how can we get in contact with you uh to contact me directly you can just email sarah at dcu.ie and uh anyone else in the team is just their name at dcu.ie or if you're not sure which person your issue kind of relates the most you can just email the help desk and they kind of give it to us dependent paul if people probably not me are looking to go running you never know how can people get in contact with you and the athletics club the athletics club is obviously up on the clubs and socks page so there's a there's an email learning it's athletics clubs and socks study there are dcu clubs and socks so that ping ping message there the committee guys will answer it myself and then my my own i suppose email is pauledupburn at dcu.ie if anyone ever wants to try out athletics or join the legs team you're more than welcome but obviously we have a separate social media page for actually the social running group that had been in existence so that's just dcu social runners on instagram and you'll see it there it's on facebook too i think helena if people are looking to get in contact with counseling or with you or anybody in in the support services how can they do that okay so for counseling in glass nevin it's counseling at dcu.ie in st pat's it's simply s pd dot counseling at dcu.ie and a full range of everything that the service provides including student support and development services is on our website so that's dcu.ie forward slash counseling lovely now claire most people will know you're in our inbox every single week but just a couple of final words you must be delighted to finally have it launched and it looks like it's going to be a fantastic year and fantastic years to come if you could look back in a year's time if we're looking at this time next year and you look back at the year that we've got to go what would one thing that you'd want to feel after the first year that the program is done it's a good question so what i really want is for students to what is to watch out for each other and that they're aware that there is a concerted effort in the university for staff to take care of students students to take care of staff equally and students take care of each other so that that sense of actually people being aware respecting each other treating each other well again not rocket science but keeping an eye out and i suppose how we notice this will be through increased referrals which means that students union are amazing we're constantly getting students referred over and also from staff from students coming along and saying you know what i'm a little bit worried about paul he's not in great form how should i go about supporting him or can i can i bring him to you or whatever it might be that i think at a basic level will be a real you know be a real win and if people are looking to get in contact with you how can they do that i'll regret this claire claire dot bowden at dcu.ie so yeah claire dot bowden at dcu.ie you'll find us on the dcu website and i love getting emails from everyone just can i if you do you mind if i just say a couple words to finish off for me so um we we mentioned various ways what's going to be done over the next few weeks and various ways of taking care of ourselves i'm just going to give a shout out to michael in the pharmacy because i think frankie's agree with me michael is resource that is completely yeah there you go so if anybody feels the step to the health center is a step too far initially he will give amazing advice to students and there is a consultation room and then very often again refuse refer students over so you know it's great to be there the other thing that we'll be offering we talk about food and nutrition is an online cookery course so you might can do the running which might do the cookery so it's two hours a week for six weeks on zoom so as many students as want can sign up and just learn some of the basics on really good and cheap nutrition which is really important so that's maybe just to to finish off say that they're coming up the other thing last thing and the email will be going around next week so we're about to launch a campaign um you got the the website address for caring connections a huge amount of resources there but we're doing a shout out to all students to see can you come to us with ideas for things that you'd like to see different on the two on the campuses and we're going to going to give some seed funding to those ideas so could be any no i'm going to start giving example examples we leave it open to you anything that you can feed in to say look this would make a difference to the physical or the mental health of students in gcu if we did whatever it might be i said we don't have huge money but we do have money and we'll certainly certainly provide all the support we possibly can that's fantastic i've been joined by dr claire bowell knows the dean of students elina her and is the counseling psychologist and head of counseling and personal development services here in dcu paul bern who's the head of athletics frank wean who's a staff nurse in the student health center sarah fits patrick who's the vice president for well-being for the dcu su like to thank everybody behind the camera this morning jack shannon nolan donal macka boy shane olockland sarah otuma and lisha allen i've been amy mclochland and this has been the launch of dcu care and connect you can visit dcu dot e forward slash care and connect any of the links and everything will be available through the dcu media production society you can dm us on instagram and facebook and ava kelly will answer all of your questions thank you so much for joining us this morning