In this post, Gillian Batty, Shannon Branigin, and Anna Chiumento, from the Global Mental Health and Society MSc Programme, share how Student Partnership Agreement funding supported their vision to develop an alumni and student network to create connections and community. This post is part of the Student Partnership Agreement 2024 series.
Nurturing community, connections, and wellbeing are core aspects of the Global Mental Health and Society (GMH&S) MSc Programme (alongside supporting academic engagement). To enhance this, we have founded the Global Mental Health and Society (GMH&S) Alumni and Student Network. This online resource seeks to sustain connection and foster community for students and alumni of the GMH&S MSc programme.
The GMH&S MSc programme, inaugurated in 2020, connects students from around the world in a multi and transdisciplinary field. In 2023, past and present students came forward with a proposal to build a network where both current students and alumni could connect with one another and the wider Global Mental Health community. We were fortunate to be awarded funding from the Student Partnership Agreement, which allowed us to realise a vision that had been incubating and taking shape in our imaginations for some time.
Who are the GMHS Student and Alumni Network?
On a rainy day in November 2021, the first cohort of GMH&S MSc students celebrated their graduations. We had largely completed our studies online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of us didn’t meet each other in person until restrictions on movement and socialising were lifted, by which time we had learned ways to bond with and support one another online.
At a post-graduation dinner, a number of us discussed how we felt fragmented and disconnected from the broader Global Mental Health field. We had each developed a breadth of knowledge, skills, and experience, however, many of us remained unsure of how to sustain connection to both the topic as well as to each other as we inevitably moved forward in our lives, pursuing employment or relocating for some, or further post-graduate studies for others.
We decided to contact our programme director, Dr Sumeet Jain, to sound out our idea for creating an online space to facilitate connection with one another, with future cohorts, and with and the Global Mental Health field. It was in these discussions, ideas, and search for solutions that the GMH&S Student and Alumni Network was conceived.
We are now a cross cohort mix of current GMH&S MSc and PhD students, alumni, and staff working together to develop this resource into a concrete and operational Network.
What we did
After receiving SPA funding , we formed a steering committee of roughly 20 students, alumni, and supporting staff. This committee allowed us to build a cross-cohort team of people who were excited by the project’s concept, and gave their time, energy, and ideas in two development workshops in early 2024.
Through interactive mapping, idea generation, and logistical discussions, steering committee workshops identified the key benefits students and alumni sought from the project. These included community building, a platform for sharing employment and internship opportunities, research, connection to projects in the broader Global Mental Health field, and importantly social and peer support as we each navigate our post-MSc journey.
It was collaboratively agreed that the online resource needed to be accessible to both current students and graduates. Initially, this involved building a web/blog page where students and alumni could share their experiences, dissertation research, connected projects and events, etc. Augmenting the online resource were social media channels including LinkedIn and Discord. Through these mechanisms, present and past students can stay connected personally and professionally, retaining links to the Global Mental Health field beyond their studies.
Where are we now?
We have just launched the network at a recent Global Mental Health Day.
The experiences, views, and ongoing research and professional work of current students and alumni are the beating heart of the resource, shared through dynamic and engaging blogs. Inspired by similar resources across University of Edinburgh, our goal is to facilitate a ‘student-led journal’, supporting students and alumni across their studies and careers to bring their own special areas of interest to the discussions taking place in the growing Global Mental Health community here at the University of Edinburgh and beyond.
Continued growth
The network is still developing. Our current efforts include:
- Inviting new cohort MSc students to get involved with the project both as administrators and writing contributors;
- Developing the platform further to broaden interdisciplinary connections across the Global Mental Health community;
- Creating opportunities for informal networking and socialising across the cohorts and broader GMH community;
- Streamlining student representatives roles for the resource to provide career-related information, opportunities, and current GMH news.
We want the Network to be a space where people benefit from their involvement both through their own contributions and those of others.
What’s next?
As we embark on the next phase of this project, we will be:
- Recruiting members from the new GMH&S MSc cohort to build on engaging the community and shaping the resource, combining their enthusiasm and fresh perspectives with those of the existing alumni and staff.
- Continually gather feedback from those using the resource to inform ongoing development.
- Create a training programme that allows each cohort to transition into sustaining and maintaining the resource as it grows.
We are keen to learn from others developing similar resources, and to share our experience and expertise with wider student cohorts looking to develop something similar – please get in touch to discuss 😊.
If you would like to find out more about the GMH&S MSc Programme please see this website, or reach out to the programme directors.
Lastly, we would like to thank all the inspiring students and alumni who have come with us on this journey, and who are continuing to contribute their ideas and expertise – it really does take a village to create change.
Gillian Batty
Gillian Batty is a full-time PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh and a previous student of the Global Mental Health MSc programme. Her PhD re-visions anxiety through the lens of complexity science, exploring anxiety in context, beyond the psychiatric model. She is based in Edinburgh and works as a student/alumnus for the EdGMH Student & Alumni Network project.
Shannon Branigin
Shannon Branigin is a PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, and also an alumnus of the Global Mental Health MSc programme. Her research explores how greenspaces function as health resources in Scotland’s urban health and social care systems, focusing on care activities of the NHS estate. Based in Edinburgh, she is currently a student/alumnus working on the EdGMH Student & Alumni Network project.
Anna Chiumento
Dr Anna Chiumento is a Lecturer in Global Mental Health and Society, and Co-Programme Director for the Global Mental Health and Society MSc Programme. She is an applied social science researcher in global mental health, specialising in empirical ethics approaches. Her research interests are in the normative dimensions to healthcare delivery; as well as what it means to conduct research ethically. Her research focuses on the applied research/practice interface, empirically examining the practice of healthcare and research for the everyday ethical dimensions they reveal.
