Overcoming Mental Health Stigma, 10bigideas Scotland: Ailie Ross-Oliver, 3rd year Politics undergraduate, joins Harriet Harris, to talk about her policy research into mental health stigmatisation, as part of the student-led think-tank, the Buchanan Institute, which has just launched its ‘10 Big Ideas for Scotland’. When our mental health deteriorates we can be most concerned to come across as seeming ok, because we fear or experience being stigmatised. Ailie and colleagues propose legislative...

In this episode, I am joined by staff member Umar Malik and PhD student Estifa’a Zaid, for a special recording made in Islamophobia Awareness Month. Estifa’a and Umar talk about their experiences of growing up as Muslims in the UK, of coming to normalise Islamophobic behaviour, and of bracing themselves for reprisal attacks after terrorist incidents (so-called ‘Islamist’ or otherwise). They talk about reporting hate crimes, and why people may not choose to report; the targeting of...

In this podcast, recorded especially in hybrid times when many students are self-isolating in their halls and flats, and doing their learning digitally, I am joined by international fitness trainer Ricky Long. Ricky and his partner Lyndsey Morrison have put together a team of fitness experts who are providing streamed workouts especially for those who are stuck indoors. On most days there are 3 exercise work-outs a day – amazing and all free of charge to members of the University. Ricky talks...

Holly McConnell is a 2nd year PE undergraduate, who began university at the age of 16, and in lockdown is combining university work with supporting her parents, who are both profoundly deaf. Holly tells us about the Youtube videos that she is making with her Mum, sharing signs so that others can learn more about British Sign Language. She also talks about growing up with sign language as her first language, and learning English at nursery age. She talks about moving into halls and starting...

Alison Hendry is the British Sign Language Development Officer with the University of Edinburgh Student Disability Service. She is joined for this podcast by her BSL interpreter Anna Spence. Alison tells us about the challenges for communication and technology that lockdown presents for her, and her appreciation of the BSL Scotland Act, which led to the creation of her post at the University, and which ensures that all Scottish Government Covid19 updates have an interpreter present so that...

Heather McAdam, a third year undergraduate intercalating with Global Health, and soon to return to the Medical School, is also the Student Association Rep for the Medical School and founder of the mental health support community, WellMed. Heather spoke in the previous Let’s Talk podcast series, on suicidality. Now she is back to tell us about her work during lockdown with the Scottish Government Mental Health Directorate, engaging young people in policy making. She describes some of the key...

Martha Pollard, a PhD student in Alzheimer and Dementia Research at the University of Edinburgh tells us about the challenges of lockdown for those living with dementia and for their carers, especially now that they are unable to get the company and respite of meeting in groups, or of receiving specialist care in their homes. Martha also talks about the interruption that lockdown brings to her doctoral research, now that she cannot access dementia wards. We don’t hear much about research...

Dr Anthony Newton,  Senior Tutor in the School of GeoSciences, talks about the changes that lockdown is bringing within his School, from missing the chats by the kettle that bond a team and also often lead to important information or discoveries, through redesigning activities and assignments when all the fieldtrips are cancelled, to rethinking multiple possible scenarios for how next year might look. We get insights from Anthony into how students and staff are staying connected, and we hear...

Professor Liz Grant, Director of the Global Health Academy and Co-Director of the University of Edinburgh Global Compassion Initiative, gives us a global perspective on the pandemic, and its effects on lower income countries. Liz is a palliative care specialist, and describes the need for doctors, families and carers to be quickly trained in end-of-life care, because there usually isn’t time to bring in specialised palliative care teams. Liz also talks about her work with the World Health...

Eva Mutua, a Vet School Masters student from Kenya, is finding things to be grateful for during lockdown. Eva describes how a compassion workshop and compassion practices have enabled her to face fears. Before lockdown was announced, Eva was frightened of being alone, regardless of the pandemic. The compassion workshop that she attended came just in time for her to find ways of turn her fears of loneliness into the discovery of the fruits of solitude. She is enjoying getting to know herself...

Alan Murray, Professor of Engineering, and Assistant Principal, Academic Support, talks about support for depression during lockdown, how powerful and healing it is to face your feelings, writing songs,  the joys of crafting, and his granddaughter's 7th birthday party on Zoom. For Coronavirus updates and advice,and FAQs please see the University webpages here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/covid-19 The Chaplaincy blogs ‘For Times Like These’...

What is like finishing up your degree and starting your new job, unable to see anyone outside your own flat? Amanda Scully, 4th year International Relations undergraduate and forthcoming Vice-President Communities with the Student Association, tells us about managing assessment changes and the library closure, ending her internship, and getting ready to start her busy Sabbatical Officer year, all from the confines of her small flat in Edinburgh. She also talks about her decision to remain in...

Rosie Taylor is coming to the end of her 3rd year as a Biology undergraduate. She is the outgoing LGBT+ Officer with the Student Association, and a founding member of WellComm, the award-winning wellbeing and community organisation for STEM subjects at the University of Edinburgh. Rosie gave interviews in our previous Let’s Talk podcast series on Mental Health. In this episode during lockdown, Rosie talks about family estrangement in times of emergency, how overwhelming it can be to have all...

Dr Marti Balaam from the Medical School and Nursing Studies talks about how compassion for ourselves as well as for others is so needed during the Covid19 lockdown. Marti talks about equipping nursing and medical students for going onto hospital wards, reminding them to look after themselves as well as their patients. She describes what happened when she and her household fell ill with suspected Covid19: how fear kicked in at first, and then she remembered what she teaches others about...

Dr Donna Dalgetty, a former PhD student, and former Medical and Nursing Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, is now an emergency doctor on the Isle of Wight. She gives us some amazing insights into life on the wards during the Covid19 pandemic: the ways in which the crisis is changing the competitive nature of the NHS, and giving doctors a greater sense of permission to look out for one another and themselves. Her team is bending over backwards in welcoming the new cohort of doctors who...

Sam and Jenny, childcare support for NHS workers Sam Bresland and Jenny Pewsey are 5th year medics seeing the cohort in the year above fast-tracked through graduation. This experience has propelled them to find ways to support NHS staff by setting up the Edinburgh branch of MedicShare: a way for medical students and others to provide childcare for NHS workers. Sam and Jenny tell us about their work with MedicShare, and how they themselves are managing the social distancing, and finding...

Welcome to the Let’s Talk: Life in Lockdown series of podcasts from the UoE and Edinburgh Student Association, keeping us together and sharing experiences in this extraordinary period of Covid19 social distancing. The University is continuing, but in ways never before known. Most of us are working and studying away from University buildings, and in isolation from one another. We are all in this together, but in vastly diverse circumstances, and it is so interesting to hear from one another...

For this podcast I am joined by James Saville, who is the Director of HR. James talks about his own experience of stress and burn out, and from a perspective of someone who is used to achieving and operating at a senior level, and who also needs to understand work stress, not only because he manages other staff, but because as HR Director he oversees the University’s response to stress at work. James speaks with remarkable openness, warmth and personal insight as we discuss journeys into and...

In this podcast I am joined by 3rd year Medical undergraduate, Heather McAdam. We talk about the mental pain that can lead someone to try to end their life, what helps and what doesn’t help if you are feeling suicidal, or if you are supporting someone who is, and how it is possible to come through a suicide attempt into enjoying and appreciating life in a whole new way. Heather shares some inspiring tactics that she adopted, and describes how social media was positive in her recovery, for...

Sharing their personal experiences, and their musical tastes, in this podcast are 3rd year undergraduate Stephanie McNair, and Assistant Principal and Professor of Engineering, Alan Murray. Together, we talk about the tyranny of perfectionism, fearing that we will fail, or that we have failed, and feeling that we are not good enough - imposter syndrome being such a common feeling that affects pretty much all of us at various times. We also touch on aspects of grief and depression, which...

Talking with me about her experience of grief and loss is 3rd year biology undergraduate Isobel Cordrey. Izzy describes the shock of hearing that her closest childhood friend had died, of finding herself in a role of passing on the news to other friends, of feeling guilty when she isn’t thinking about her friend, and guilty when she is thinking about her ‘instead’ of getting on with her life. Izzy also talks about what helps and what doesn’t when you have lost someone close to you, how a...

Two undergraduates, Rosie Taylor and Stephanie McNair, come together for this podcast to talk about loneliness. More and more people, of all ages, are reporting feeling lonely, and we know that this is bad for our physical and mental health. Rosie and Stephanie give voice to how some of this feels, and how shame and self-judgement worsen loneliness because they make us hide ourselves away. They share their experiences of starting university, or returning after taking a year out, of the pros...

Joining me for this podcast are 3rd year Zoology undergraduate Rosie Taylor, and Assistant Principal and Professor of Engineering Alan Murray. Rosie tells about her experiences of great sadness and despair from when she was very young, Alan from when he was older having first seen family members suffer. They talk about how hard it is to communicate the feelings of heaviness when you are in them, and how hard it is to get out of bed. Other things we cover in this podcast include: talking...

Welcome to the Let’s Talk series of podcasts from the UoE, where we talk about life and all that it may throw at you at University, focussing on our mental health. I’m Harriet Harris, The University Chaplain, and each week I’m joined by students or staff of the University who come and talk about their experiences with mental health. When we’re struggling with our mental health Often we imagine that no one is feeling like we are. It’s such a relief to discover you are not alone , or weird or...