nip it in the bud: the theory.................................................2methodology...........................................................................4the root of the problem.......................................................5we are the reckless..............................................................7Mary,Mary, quite contrary...................................................9student issues.......................................................................11An apple a day keeps the doctor away...............................13Attitudes to stress...............................................................21sharing is caring...................................................................25

PRUNING...........................................................30a package deal.......................................................................33design & development...........................................................34the website.............................................................................39the app.....................................................................................45Social media...........................................................................49Campus events.......................................................................53poster campaign....................................................................55

ROOTS & SHOOTS...............................................64(appendix, bibliography & references)

To execute this successfully, I plan to gain in depth knowledge and understanding of current issues surrounding mental health with particular attention to is affect and effects on young people. I will do this by reading articles and reports dealing with this subject matter. I plan to establish why it is young minds that are particu-larly more vulnerable. I will also be vital that I talk first hand, to young people, in particular first year students, and understand their views and feelings surrounding this issue. I need to find out where they feel their stress originates from, and what their own coping strategies are when things overwhelm them. It will also be of great use to know where their points of interaction are, to know how best to communicate my message to them.

I will look at which organisations are already looking at ways of combating this, look into what platforms they are using to convey their message and analyse their effectiveness. I will look at past campaigns that have targeted a similar issue and analyse their suc-cess. I plan to make my campaign innovative and widely accessible making it available on a variety of technologies, to do this success-fully I will look at recent innovative and successful advertising campaigns both related to my subject matter and unrelated. I hope that this will give me a well-rounded understanding and place me in the most advantageous position to create an effective campaign.

Britain has seen a rise in the number of students seeking support for mental health issues. In the past year an average of 22% of students have sought help and advice from their university and a massive 91% have admitted to experiencing notable periods of stress or anxiety in the weeks before moving to university. This is alarming as students face many potential causes of stress dur-ing their first term away from home, such as academic pressure, financial pressures and social pressures. People who suffer from excessive stress have a higher chance of developing mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. It is becoming ever more pressing for the government to step up and confront Britain’s growing mental health issues as the effectiveness of current NHS services is called into question in light of the upcoming elections in May 2015.

“Stressed people eat, drink or smoke twice as much as they usually do. They rush around more, have more falls, get into more conflicts, have lower pain thresholds and tolerance of difficulties,

and they are more likely to develop low-level mental health is-sues such as anxiety or depression”

(Jackson, C. 2014, TheHuffingtonpost.com, 4/1//14)

Many young people discover themselves on a downward spiral from stress into anxiety and depression, as well as facing other health issues such as under or over-eating and irregular sleep patterns, insomnia or hypersomnia. In many cases it could have been prevented with some simple inter-vention, an aid to help balance out the everyday stress and pressures that face a student. The developing relationships with technology are exacerbating issues. Social media makes people feel constantly seen and so people feel compelled to convey to their ‘followers’ that they are having the best time imaginable, which ironically can leave them feeling isolated by the front they put across, or if they have nothing to shout about online can make them feel insignificant and forgotten. It is damaging people self-esteem. This creates a more vul-nerable individual, who is easily overwhelmed should they be unbalanced by one of their many pressures and responsi-bilities.

My aim is to design a campaign to capture the attention of young adults, to help them avoid potential mental health issues related to stress and anxiety and reduce the stigmatism associated with them.

“The development of the teenage brain is a crucial, hazardous and emotionally

stressful time for many adolescents. The synapses of the brain go through a major

developmental period, creating new pathways where emotional connection to friends and family can be affected, risk-taking may be high, behaviours can be

extreme. How young people cope during this period of development can have a massive impact on their long term

mental health.”

- Young Healthy Minds A kent based mental health charity

What stress and anxiety if a first year student facing? What makes them so vunerable to negative emotions?

For most first year students, university will be the first time they are self-suf-ficient, using money from their savings or loans to pay rent, bills, food and recreation. This can lead to stressful situations if funds run low or budgeting mistakes are made. The cost of attending university may have fallen to some students parents and so they feel academic pressure to achieve to ensure their parents, or even their own money, is not wasted.

A new student has to adjust to new academic pressures, a new subject and keep up a new pace and style of learning. They will not have the support they were used to in school they might feel pressure to achieve high marks from their parents or tutors, or even just from their own expectations. They may also struggle with the stress of workloads, exams and deadlines

Social Pressures are key to most students first year. It can be daunting mov-ing out of their home to live with peers whom they have never met. If they do not get on it can cause friction that lasts the whole year and so makes living there uncomfortable and stressful. Some students feel the need to impress each other, whilst some find it difficult to forge friendships. There are also social pressures including nights out, drink, drugs and sports socials which pressure to attend and be part of make have a knock on effect causing you to find other aspects of your life stressful. All of this of course culminates on social media where students are constantly seen and so will create a facade of what they want people to believe there life is. it can create jealousy between friends if one has settled in to university better than the other and can lower self-esteem due to lack of communication via social media and other technologies. This will weaken peoples resolve against other pressures.

Emotional stress is less likely to be widely noticed or discussed. Students may be homesick, missing their parent’s pets and friends. Or attending univer-sity may have put a strain on a relationship. Other emotional stress can come from a student having doubts, over their choice of course, or if university is for them, perhaps they do not feel ready or are overwhelmed by the whole expe-rience. university also means being in charge of your own decisions which is a larger responsibility than many people imagine and so can struggle with. A lack of self-discipline, in terms of eating the right things and getting appropri-ate sleep, as well as exposure to temptations such as drugs, sex and alcohol. A poor decision with regards to any of these can have a significant effect on a person’s mental well-being.

The wrong balance of these stress and pressures can cause a student to find themselves in a downward spiral, becoming over-whelmed by the culmination of pressure and stress, ending up in a highly weak and negative state, vulnerable to succumb to mental health problems, such as depression.

“I DIDN’T GO TO LECTURES, SO I HAD NO STRESS FROM UNI BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY I DIDNT DO ANY WORK. I WAS HAVING A GREAT TIME GOING OUT ALL THE TIME, MAKING NEW MATES. THATS UNTIL MY LOAN RAN OUT, AFTER ABOUT A MONTH? THATS ALSO WHEN EVERYTHING CAME CRASHING IN A BIT. I GOT LETTERS AND EMAILS FROM UNI ABOUT MY ATTENDANCE. A FEW WEEKS LATER A LETTER GOT SENT HOME TO MY PARENTS SO THEY THEN STOPPED SENDING ME MONEY. I HAD F*CKED UP THE WHOLE UNI THING REALLY. I FELT LIKE SUCH A FAILURE. I WISH I HAD HAD THE BALLS TO JUST FACE UP TO IT

ALL WHEN I REALISED THINGS WERE GOING WRONG”

BLAKE20

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

Two students who dropped out of first year after their first term identify what the main issue was.

LUCINDA21

DURHAM UNIVERSITY

“I JUST COULDNT DO IT ALL. THE PRESSURE TO MAKE FRIENDS WAS TOO MUCH. BEFORE I KNEW IT I HAD NO ONE TO TALK TO. I DIDNT WANT TO TELL ANYONE FROM HOME BECAUSE I’D FEEL LIKE A LOSER. IT WAS ALL I THOUGHT ABOUT THOUGH, WHICH MEANT I

ISOLATED MYSELF EVEN MORE.”

Stress is rarely recognised as dangerous, but should be. It is alarming how ill a person can become through feeling stressed. As your body concentrates on the issues causing your stress, it leaves other defences vulnerable, your im-mune system does not work as efficiently when you are stressed.(Anon. “Stress & The College Student”,07/2004, National Health Ministries,USA)

However this is not reflected in people’s attitudes to-wards stress and people suffering from stress. People treat it as an accepted part of life, which a brief spell from time to time is, but a sustained period of stress is very harmful. Why is it acceptable to take time of work, for example, for the flu, but not for a period of stress? Why are there remedies and relief for various illnesses, but not from stress? Admittedly, there is advice to do things like take a hot bath or try yoga, and in extreme cases there are medications such as Diazepam, but nothing over the counter. There are even preventative medications for colds and flu but not for stress.

People are expected to cope with stress and because of this people rarely speak up if they are becoming over-whelmed and try to cope with it on their own. By com-parison, this is like having a sore throat but attempting to talk normally, so that no one notices.

Helps to sooth symptoms of cold and flu whilst preventing it from worsening. advised alongside bedrest and plenty of fluids

Symptoms include:

headache - sore throat -

lethargy - weakness -

stuffy nose - runny nose -

cough - aches -

sneezing - fever -

A hypothetical product, but in high demand. Advised alongside a good nights sleep and maybe a hug.

- headaches - accident-prone - fatigue - teeth grinding - insomnia - restlessness - weight change - increased alcohol, drug, tobacco use - colds - neck & shoulders tighten up/ache - digestive upsets - pounding heart - forgetfulness - dull senses - lethargy - poor concentration - low productivity

Symptoms include:

negative attitude - anxiety -

irritability -the “blues” -

moods swings - nervous laugh -

bad temper - worrying -

crying spells - low self-esteem -

isolation - lowered sex drive -

resentment - reckless behaviour -

irrational behaviour - loneliness -

lashing out - using people -

clamming up -

Stress relief is offered globally in the form of prescription med-ication, however this is for extreme chronic cases and tends to not treat the cause of stress, just dulls the symptoms. Many people wrongly associate the use of these medications to more serious mental health habits and so there are stigmas attached which is why they are widely avoided.

Current medication for stress include tranquilizers, which whilst medically calm you down and aid sleep, they do not treat the causes of stress. They are not recommended for long term use and can lead to addiction. Stress can result in not just ad-diction to medication, but it is proven that people who function with high levels of stress, are more likely to become dependent on illegal drugs such as cocaine and speed. These drugs pro-duce similar effects to stress and can keep a person function-ing at high energy levels. However these are highly addictive and harmful, they are most definitely not a suitable solution to stress.

Herbal products are often used, for example chamomile or green tea, calming fragrances such as lavender or herbal sleep aids like valerian.

Other stress relieving therapies medical staff would suggest before opting for prescription medication are deep breathing (often accompanied by yoga or meditation) and exercise. It is said that 21 minutes of exercise will reduce stress and anxiety in an individual.

However these solutions are all designed to help ‘cope’ with too much stress. The real problem is not managing the symp-toms of stress, but why is it accepted that someone should be under so much pressure that they must adapt to survive it? Would dealing with the cause of stress not be more effective?

In different cultures, stress is perceived and dealt with in dif-ferent ways. In Britain stress relief can be therapeutic prac-tices like scented candles, relaxing music, a warm or alcoholic drink and hot baths. The French rely on their native wine. In Russia they take hot showers or saunas to relieve tension. Scandinavians are more vulnerable to stress and negative moods during winter due to lack of daylight, therefore they have developed a waterproof ‘so-be-it’ attitude towards stressful situations. In India it is popular for people reinforce positive thoughts and feelings by starting their day with ‘laughter yoga’, a practice that involves laughing, clapping and jumping all whilst smiling.

East Asia choose similar, spiritual methods of stress relief such as massage including reflexology, tai chi and medita-tion. As part of the Buddhist religion it is a belief that you should remain centred and calm, by having this as a priority, Buddhists are less likely to find themselves in high-pressure, overwhelming situations.(Patz.A, 2004) In some occupations however, the opposite is encouraged. Professions such as financial trading, sales and sports, stress is encouraged as it causes the body to produce adrenaline which can increase competitiveness, confidence and keep you moving at a fast pace.

In films, television and literature, stressed out characters are usually linked with wealth and success. It is represented by high powered jobs such as law, business and finance. This inevitably leads the average person to believe that this is what is expected, that it is a condition of success and aspirational living

Young adults are finding additional pressures put on them by the me-dia and celebrity culture. Expectations of how they should look, behave and what they should be able to cope with. Articles about how celebrity women are able to achieve extreme goals whilst also looking fabulous and maintaining an impeccable social and family, these are raising the standards of what people feel they are expected to cope with.

Here are a sselection of quotes from people in the public eye, presenting stress as a positive concept.

“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”

- Leonard Bernstein

“No pressure, no diamonds.” - Thomas Carlyle

“I think everyone should have some kind of stress in their life; otherwise, it’s boring isn’t it?”

- Katie Price

“Stress is a designer ailment that many of the so-called afflicted suffer from with pride.”

- Janet Street-Porter

I believe prevention can be achieved by people sharing more with each other about what they are currently experiencing to cause this state of stress. Two successful platforms, which provide something that people can relate to and effectively manage to get people to open up about private issues are Post Secret and Humans of New York. These comfort people who may feel isolated until they read about someone who is going through a similar thing to them or even come out the other side of it, and so it can be the motivation someone needs to power through.

Post secret began as a community mail art project, where partic-ipants would post a postcard an anonymously write a secret on it. The project has gown and created its own online anonymous and accepting community, since 2004 the project has received over one million contributions. Due to an alarming rate of people posting se-crets expressing wishes of self harm or suicide, Postsecret teamed up with American suicide helpline 1-800-suicide. Since doing so they have received many postcards thanking them for talking them out of dire situations.

I think one of the most successful aspects of Postsecret is that each postcard is personally customised by the sender, it helps to remind followers that this is a secret a real person is holding on to and struggling with. It acts as art not just a form of anonymous gossip, not that human curiosity isn’t a ma-jor factor in the success of the pro-ject but it has more depth to it than a gossip app such as “Whisper”.

Humans of New York is a blog featuring photo portraits of people on the streets of New York accompanied by a personal story from them. The stories can be as simple as “who is your favourite teacher?” to “tell me the saddest moment of your life”. It makes readers stop and think more about the people around them, that everyone has a back story and everyone has their personal demons. Again this helps to people realise that they are no alone, they may read about someone who they can relate to. Humans of New York also share their posts publicly on Facebook, here people can com-ment and discuss the post. The reactions are usually overwhelmingly positive and support-ive.

“I constantly worry if I’m doing OK with my boys. I spent the entire weekend with headphones on, working on a paper for

graduate school, instead of spending time with them. I’m doing all this so that one day I’ll earn enough to send them to col-lege. But at the same time, they need help

with their reading now.”

“Do you remember the saddest moment of your life?”

“December 15th, 2010. That was the night I tried to commit suicide.”

“What happened?”

“So much stuff was going on, then someone said something.”

After establishing that there is too little focus on everyday stress and the health issues it can cause. Although there are

practices put in place for when people hit extremes, I believe that more needs to be done in terms of prevention. It is impor-tant to encourage people and the people around them to recog-nise when they are beginning a downwards spiral of negativity

and stress. This is especially crucial to the young academic who has taken the step to move to university, and accept the

pressures and responsibility that comes with it.

I aim to create a package targeted at first year students that will help them

cope with pressure and manage stress. The aims are to quantify and track the causes of

their stress and negativity and provide them with the information and tools to prevent the

manifestation of stress into any more harmful mental health issues. It also aims to create a di-

alogue around stress and try and change peoples acceptance of it as collateral damage in the academ-

ic world. Stress is not inevitable and is not something people have to just live with. It can be prevented and managed, like other ‘common’ illnesses such as a cold.

Initially I believe that this needs to be accessible across multi-media platforms. It will have several digi-tal profiles in both a mobile and online platform, and a first-hand physical presence. Ideas for the digital as-pects are an app that will act as a tracker. It will allow users to measure the stress levels of different aspects of their life, for example, academic pressure, pres-

sure of their love life and family pressure etc. this will be linked with an online website which can create infographics of the data from their app and with it, offer the necessary advice and information. I think it

would be a good idea to help users relate, peer to peer. Therefore I recommend that the website also

hosts forums for people to solicit advice about a specific problem or just discov-er that there are other people in their situation and they can help each other through.

I would also like to feature a blog. The blog would be similar to Human of New York in that it would feature a street-style style portrait alongside their telling of a story re-lated to a stressful period in their life. Since this is aimed at university students I think it would be pertinent to feature students from a different cam-pus every week. Social media will of course be in-volved with twitter, Instagram and Facebook profiles. These will feature links to the website and other rele-vant sites. Mainly they will post about which university they are featuring that week along with blog entries. There can also be news, information and advice from relevant chari-ties such as Mind and Young Minds. In order to entice users and to maintain their use of the service, incentives will be regularly offered such as desirable discounts and competition give-aways, these would also be offered across the social media sites.

As this service will be targeted at universities, I suggest campus events and representatives to establish and main-tain a presence. This can be a variety of different formats, a stall at the fresher’s fair, a promotional club night and occasional campus pop-up stalls and guest lectures. The representatives would be sourced from the student body; it would perhaps be an interest to psychology students or students to which this is a poignant subject. The other physical element would be a poster campaign to capture the student’s attention and interest and keep a presence. This would be put up around the campus and other places it is likely that students would see them such as nightclub toilets and public transport.

This programme is designed to meet the needs of first year university students. To introduce the students to the service however, I believe that it would be most effective if delivered through the university. It will be designed as a package to be sold to universities. Included would be the programme which could be accessed via the university intranet, accessible to every student via their student area. With the growth of technology making it possible in future years for every new student to be provided with a personal tablet, the app for the programme could be ready installed making the service even more accessible, hopefully encouraging student usage.

By selling the programme to universities as a commodity it will help to fund the running and management of the scheme. Other funding will be sourced through allowing organisations interested in targeting students, to advertise on the website and via the mobile application.

Universities are responsible for looking after both their students and employees mental well being and are having to invest more money than ever into counselling services and mental health clinics. ( Ward, L. Shaw, C.. (2014). Dark thoughts: why mental illness is on the rise in academia. Available: The Gaurdian. Online. 11.2014) Therefore it would be in their interest to invest in a package that would act as a prevention service. Hopefully it would contribute to cutting down the number of cases of mental illness in students dealt with through the university.

The name of the service is Nip it in the Bud. This has been inspired by the previously mentioned theory and will act as the metaphor across all aspects. It effectively communicates that the aim of the service is prevention. The idea of a creeper style plant will highlight the sinister nature of stress and resulting negativity..

I have decided on a font by first, deciding that it should be hard edged and possibly follow the plant theme. If I did settle on a plant inspired font then I would not have an image and the type alone would make up the logo. I looked at a number of gothic fonts before sampling some ‘eroded’ style fonts to represent stress. I finally decided on a font called ‘distort you a lesson’.

As this was not a plant based font I have created an image to accompany it. Initially I asked a illustrator to create a sinister looking plant. However upon reviewing their design I decided it looked to comical and juvenile for this service. I proceeded to create a sinister looking plant pot with a single shoot coming out of it. I attached the text to the image and finalized my logo.

I went on to use the image for the visualised user data. A single shoot represents a stress free user whilst a crowded, tangled built up plant represents the overwhelmed, stressed mind at maximum capacity. On the facing page I have featured the lowest and highest stress levels in plant form.

As a colour palette I will use a series of greys with hints of lilac. This is to remain gender neutral and not to appear patronizing. It also keeps it neutral of any association with a specific university.

The website will be the epicentre for the programme. This will be where students are initially directed via promotions. The keys objectives of the website are to quantify and inform and provide a forum for users. This will be achieved through a range of features. Users will have their own account which will be security protected with their own personal student ID number and password. This is essential as the data logged and information accessed will be highly personal and allows confidentiality and a level of anonymity.

The personal tracker will be linked with the mobile app and will provide access to your own data archive, but primarily provide infographics of the data logged by users. There will be a ‘current’ status based on your most recent logged data and a long term timeline which will aim to highlight peaks and falls in stress since the account was made active. This feature will also identify any patterns and identify these to users, should these show repeat occasions of negativity with similar circumstances. This is in order to help them prevent any continuation of the pattern of negativity. By consolidating the logged data and creating visualisations, it will also allow the service to automatically provide users with appropriate advice and recommendations for further services. This will link to another feature of the website: Information and Advice.

Information and Advice will be a tab on the website that will be accessible to every user. However to ensure users are accessing this when necessary, it will also be directly linked to users when their data is showing them to be in particular need. The information and advice will be ranked on severity. Should a user show up as having logged an extreme amount of negativity then they will be linked to appropriate sources on information and advice including helplines of charitable organisations. Advice will include coping strategies and tactics to encourage students to talk to appropriate people when experiencing these feelings. Lower levels of negativity may provoke responses from the service such as advice on who to talk to and how to start a dialogue to let people know you are beginning to feel a little overwhelmed or advice on ways to de stress or advice on how to of student services for individual universities would also be available.

A further website feature will be Forums. This will be an opportunity for users to post questions seeking the answers, opinions and advice of other users. By exchanging ex-periences with their peers it will help users understand that they are not alone in their situations, that feeling stressed or overwhelmed is not a sign of weakness. They will also be able to share advice and tips which users may be more willing to accept and practice with the knowledge that they have peers doing the same thing. Threads on the forum can be hash tagged to allow users to find topics relevant to what they are searching for. It will also allow the website to categorise them and suggest specific threads to users whose data suggests that they may be relevant to them.It will be essential that these forums are closely monitored by site operators as a zero-tolerance stance must be taken towards any form of online abuse or trolling. Due to the nature of the service online abuse would be detrimental to the aims and objectives.

Another feature to encourage peer to peer relations and create dialogues around people feeling stressed is to feature a blog style section which will display posts featuring a street style inspired portrait of a student accompanied by a short story provided by them. The story will be a personal one from the featured student, detailing either their most over-whelming, stressed or lowest moment, along with for example, the circumstances sur-rounding it, how they overcame it, what lasting effects it has had on them and the lessons learned. These posts can be shared on the social media outlets and welcome comments and discussions about it. The subjects of these posts will be students located on university campuses with a different university featured each week. The task of photographing and transcribing the subject’s accounts would be passed to the services student rep at that campus.

The final feature of the website would be a News and Events section. This will feature relevant news stories from external sources and news of events being put on either by the service or promote events by other organisations that hold any relevance.

The mobile application will be available on mobile and tablet devices. It is essential that users use the same log in information as with their online account to ensure that the two sync. The mobile app will be presented as the primary contact point. This will be where users are encouraged to log their data. This data will be measurements of specific pressure points. These pressure points will be symbolized by sliding scales, each one representing different aspects of life: Social Relationships, Love Life, Family, University, Finance and Health. There will also be an ‘Other’ option which will allow users to personalize their app by tagging an extra sliding scale. Users can have as many as 5 personal sliding scales.The sliding scales will measure from 1 to 100. If a user has no extra sliding scales then their total will be out of 600. If all their scales were at 100 then they would all share an equal portion of the total. If two were at 20 but all the others at zero then the visualisation would show 40/600. A score of 550 would be the most stressed a person could be and so they would be directed to the information and advice for the most urgent cases. Cases would decrease in severity between 600 > 550 > 450 > 350 > 250 > 0. This does not mean that the information and advice targeted at more severe cases would not be available to all users; it would just not be directly recommended unless they achieved the appropriate score.

The app will send users notifications. There will be two types of notification. The first will be a daily notification to remind you to log your days sliding scale. It is important that this is logged as regularly as possible to be able to accurately detect changes and also it is important to measure times when the user is not stressed as much as times of stress. If a user uses the app erratically, only when stressed, their long term data will show them to have long periods of sustained stress which may be highly inaccurate. The second type of notification will be to alert the user of any activity on forum posts they have posted or are following. Forum posts and stories will also be accessible through the App.

The service will have a strong presence on social media. This is to increase accessibility and user interaction. It will allow a variation in content and add another dimension to the service. Primarily, Nip it in The Bud will have profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. The Facebook and Twitter profiles will be used to share posts from the stories page and the forum with followers as well as promotions and competitions from other student targeted brands and organisations. The Instagram account will primarily post images from the stories page (along with the accompanying story) as well as images and promotions of campus events. The Tumblr will be a page posting stories alongside reblogged images and posts with relevance to the purpose of Nip it in The Bud. The service will also have a newsletter that they will send to users via email. They will also email incentive offers. These will be discounts for brands and activities who are student centred.

An mock up of a branded stand at a freshers fair.

As the programme will be made available through the university there will be a year round presence on campus. Nip it in The Bud will train up a team of students to act as representatives. Their roles will be to represent the service, encourage use of it and run events and find and record the stories when they are the featured campus. They will be available at events like the fresher’s fair where they will provide first year students with information about why the service is important and how they can use it. They will run at least one termly event in university facilities such as the Student Union bar. These events will not only be to promote the service and encourage use but they will have activities such as inflatable gladiator jousting or bungee running, promoting them as short term ‘stress busters’. These events will also have DJ’s and drinks offers to attract students.

The student reps for the service will be recruited from third year students. Applications will be welcome from all students but will particularly be promoted amongst courses with an interest in mental health such as psychology. They will receive regular training and updates along with a monthly wage. Other than promoting the service they will have tasks to carry out such as taking regular surveys to see what percentage of the student body is using the service. They will run focus groups to gather feedback and test any new features. When it is a week where their campus is featured for Stories, it will be up to them to arrange a team to source students to tell stories and take the photographs. Student reps will also act as an information point for any student looking for information about sources of advice or information about their own relevant university student services. The reps will not however be able to give any form of advice or counsel.

The print campaign will be a series of images created to cap-ture student’s attention and highlight the issue of stress. These posters will be placed in strategic places to ensure they are seen by their target audience. These places include, around university campuses and on university notice boards as well as in halls of residence. The images will also be featured on University trans-port, in student targeted publications and on websites such as UCAS and Studentbeans.com.