The brief I chose to undertake was ‘Halls Mental Health’, from first glance what jumped out to me was the idea of the concept being something ‘made by a student’ and not a member of the halls team. To me this really jumped out as an opportunity to do something a bit different on a topic which as a whole is kept very corporate in its designs.
The primary objective for the brief was to create a clear concise outcome which will appeal to students. The halls team want the audience, students living in halls, to be made aware that Cardiff Met can supply support for students and their flatmates struggling with or effected by mental health issues whilst in Halls. The message was that if any students had any concerns over the the mental health of themselves or that of a flatmate they should speak to the halls team.
The brief outlined some possible factors which they thought were stopping students from reaching out for help, they included:
Not being aware that help is available.
Worries about how they may be perceived.
Thinking their issues are normal.
Concerns over their accommodation
Worried about confidentiality
Flatmates wrongly believe they can cope and provide correct support
Flatmates are under the perception that responsibility is theirs.
Currently the university have no real system or campaign in place within the halls which meant the concept would be something new and fresh with no limiting factors, other than one point from the client that they wanted to ensure we don’t use a shock factor within the work. Again this was another aspect of the brief which enticed me as it meant the outcome could be something new and didn’t have to follow many guidelines.
Firstly, within the group of my peers undertaking the same brief, we carried out our task to discuss the in’s and out’s of the brief and discussed what the main points were in terms of going forward with our concepts. We decided that the overarching question be to be answered was How might we persuade first year Cardiff Met students to speak out about their mental health issues in a relatable way. To us as a group this really highlighted the main points about what the message is, alongside the main barrier which we aim to overcome.
Ben Jackson 