Healthy Body Healthy Mind Awards 2017/18

On 15^thJune we were joined by students’ associations, universities and colleges from all over Scotland to celebrate students’ fantastic achievements at the Healthy Body Healthy Mind Awards. We were absolutely blown away by the dedication and passion shown by students and staff on the submissions we received. Here’s a look back at some of the winning projects.

The Healthy Body Healthy Mind Awards are a partnership initiative between NUS Scotland, Scottish Student Sport and ASH Scotland funded by the Scottish Government. The Awards highlight the link between sports, physical activity, smoking prevention and mental health. To gain an award, colleges and universitiesare encouraged to create projects that bring about practical change across the institution and promote positive wellbeing.

This year there were some incredible projects and initiatives set up by students and staff focusing on promoting positive mental health. At Queen Margaret University Students’ Unionduring Eating Disorders Awareness Week, they produced a list of the ‘Top 5 Books to Read During Recovery’. This list was created by students who are themselves recovering from eating disorders. We also saw some fantastic collaborations between students and sabbatical officers on mental events, just like at Robert Gordon University Students’ Association. Here the Mental Wellbeing Society and the President of Education and Welfare teamed up for World Mental Health Day.

As well as mental health, the Healthy Body Healthy Mind Award focuses on smoking prevention and the judging panel made up of the three partner organisations were very impressed by the breadth of projects in this area. City of Glasgow College signed up to ‘Smoke Free Generation’ in 2017 and have been displaying health information on smoking at their student services,. Some students’ associations,like Highlands and Islands Students’ Association(HISA), took a creative approach. HISA held a competition encouraging students to design their own smoking poster.

The awards aim to focus on the positive link between mental health and sport, and we saw some brilliant projects that highlighted this connection. For example, over 497 students were involved in the ‘See Scotland’ project at Dumfries and Galloway College, a wonderful project encouraging students to achieve 10,000 daily steps, whilst getting out and seeing the beautiful sights. Sport has a unique capacity to bring people together and combat loneliness, and this is just what Scotland’s Rural College have developed through their plans to set up a ‘Green Club’. This club will not only demonstrate sustainable farming, but it will bring people together to help form new friendships! Brilliant work.

Well done to everyone who took part, the final Awards for 2017/18, awarded on a scale of 1-5* were:

Institution	Stars Awarded
Border’s college	1
Dumfries & Galloway SA	1
Edinburgh Napier	1
Heriot Watt SA	1
Inverness College (HISA) SA	1
New College Lanarkshire	1
Robert Gordon SA	1
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland SA	1
West College Scotland SA	1
Edinburgh College SA	2
Glasgow Clyde College	2
Glasgow University SA	2
Highland and Island SA (HISA)	2
Queen Margaret SA	2
Scotland’s Rural College SA	2
South Lanarkshire College SA	2
Aberdeen University SA	3
Perth College (HISA)	3
Stirling University SA	3
Dundee & Angus college	4
Dundee University + SA	4
Fife College SA	4
West Lothian College SA	4
City of Glasgow College	5