Mi Salud Mental: Using Curriculum-Infusion to Promote Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing

Using Curriculum-Infusion to Promote Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing for University Students in Spanish and Latin American Studies.

Using curriculum-infusion, this project incorporates positive psychology into core modules for fourth-year students in Spanish and Latin American Studies (SLAS). We will examine whether fourth-year students in SLAS experience more positive changes in their mental health and wellbeing from Terms 1 to 2 and have better overall attendance in comparison to fourth-year students in other language programmes.

Together with student co-producers, the team will identify suitable texts which provide linguistic challenge and explore principles of positive psychology. Teaching materials, exercises and assessments will also be developed collaboratively to enhance students’ awareness of, and personal skills in, resilience building and positive psychology, benefitting students’ positive mental health and their engagement with their course and assessments. The project will provide an opportunity to showcase the use of novel, innovative and emerging teaching methods for improving student mental health and wellbeing, including curriculum-infusion.

The team expect to utilise the results from the pilot to apply for a larger grant, working with other faculties to develop a toolkit for universities seeking to introduce positive mental health into their curricula across different disciplines.