Abstract
Mental health challenges among higher education students have become a global
concern. Students have been identified as a vulnerable population, and they
experience significant mental health challenges and difficulties due to multiple factors.
Understanding students’ experiences, mental health challenges and needs, as
verbalised by them, was crucial for this study.
Therefore, the purpose of the study was to develop strategies to facilitate the mental
health of students in a higher education institution. The research was conducted using
a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, and contextual research design that followed a
phenomenological and appreciative inquiry approach. The study was conducted over
four phases: In phase one, students’ experiences using mental healthcare services
and the experiences of the mental healthcare practitioners providing these services
were explored and described.
Purposive and snowball sampling were used to select students and mental health
practitioners to participate in the study. In-depth phenomenological interviews were
conducted, and naïve sketches were used to collect data. The researcher piloted the
study to confirm the suitability of the research method, and amendments were made
based on the outcome of the pilot. The appreciative inquiry 5D model (Define,
Discover, Dream, Design, and Deliver) guided the research questions, and Giorgi’s
data analysis method was used to analyse the data.
The study’s findings were formulated into themes and sub-themes. Seven themes and
eleven sub-themes were derived from the students’ data, and five themes and eight
sub-themes were derived from the mental health practitioners’ data. The findings
showed that students and mental health practitioners viewed mental healthcare
services as a setting that offered support, guidance, and care to students with mental
health challenges. They reported meaningful and fulfilling experiences and wanted
safe, efficient, accessible, available and student-centred mental healthcare services.
Lastly, they mentioned the need to monitor and evaluate all the services to ensure that
the needs of the students are being met. The combined themes were:
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Theme 1: Promoting mental health and support
Theme 2: A meaningful and fulfilling experience
Theme 3: Safe and student-centred mental healthcare services
Theme 4: Efficient, accessible, and available mental healthcare services
Theme 5: Ensuring monitoring and evaluation of mental healthcare
services
In phase two, a conceptual framework to facilitate the mental health of students in a
higher education institution was developed based on the findings from phase one.
Then, in phase three, strategies to facilitate the students’ mental health were
developed based on the conceptual framework. Lastly, in phase four, a panel of
experts in mental healthcare and research evaluated the developed conceptual
framework and strategies.
Measures of trustworthiness, namely credibility, confirmability, transferability, and
dependability, were thoroughly applied throughout the research process to ensure the
rigour of the study. The study also strictly adhered to the ethical principles of informed
consent, privacy and confidentiality, research risks and benefits, and gatekeeper
permission.
The study’s significant contribution was the conceptual framework and developed
strategies to facilitate students’ mental health in a higher education institution.