What is the Unihealth news programme?
What is Unihealth?
Demands on university student support services are greater than ever before. We partner with universities to provide effective wellbeing support to students, through the UK’s first health and wellbeing news messaging programme.
Our programme is an affordable, scalable and effective wellbeing news service to help universities:
- Support students through key transitions
- Offer early intervention and preventative support
- Improve student experience
- Ensure effective signposting to university and third-party support services and resources
- Gather data to gain insights, informing your wider support strategy
- Widely promote positive mental health and wellbeing
The programme works in tandem with your student support services and acts as a hammock of support for all students – not just those with immediate health needs. It is an early intervention and preventative support resource, empowering students to make informed health choices. By helping students to self-serve, we help you to focus your student support resources on students who need one-to-one attention.
Reaching students through their preferred medium
Our support reaches students through instant messaging. Why? They prefer this channel. Students are increasingly switched off to traditional communications channels like email and spend an average of 3.5 hours on social media daily (IPA, 2017). We help you to cut through the noise of traditional comms and make a personal connection with each student.
No new apps needed to access our support. Our programme lets you send direct, instant news messages to students through the messaging apps they are never without. Our messages frequently receive over 90% read rates.
Timed, relevant support
The Unihealth programme enrols students onto a bespoke news messaging campaign and walks the journey with each of them through their first year. Together we can give students crucial tools and knowledge to confidently navigate a range of issues commonly impacting on wellbeing at university. Our topics include: Perfectionism, Alcohol and drugs, Depression and anxiety, Stress, Life skills, Nutrition, Money, Vaccinations, Homesickness, Making friends, Sexual health, Sleep, Resilience, Isolation, Coping strategies.
We map important pinch points for first years on the academic calendar enabling you to pre-empt common issues and deliver the right advice at the optimum time.
Preparation
Freshers
Finances
Positivity
Exams
“I was feeling really stressed over money, I was all alone and thought no one cared and my phone buzzed with some good vibes from Unihealth.”
(Student feedback, 2018)
The power of words
We are a team of health and behaviour change specialists. Our content is created using effective behaviour change techniques. We can help you to nudge your students towards better habits, facilitate change with actionable advice and normalise (normal) behaviour to reduce stigmatisation and feelings of isolation. In addition, behind every Unihealth message is a solid evidence base and all our content is reviewed by top university health experts.
“Unihealth inspired me to be more responsible about my entire life, Thank You.”
(Student feedback, 2018)
Gather data
Our tech platform allows you to measure student engagement and the impact of the programme. We produce aggregate data and can use polls to ask specific questions. You can learn from our data and optimise your support.
Emergency communications
With Unihealth you can also send urgent communications to students, in the event of campus incident, extreme weather event or meningitis outbreak. Our broadcast messaging function can also serve as a suicide post-vention tool.
24-7 crisis support
Every student on the programme has permanent access to information on crisis issues such as alcohol abuse, depression and suicide, sexual assault and concerns about radicalisation. We also include lists of key emergency contacts, personalised for your institution. Many students access this information even in the early hours, proving a demand for it. Together we can help you to be there for your students when they need help the most.