E-health for mental wellbeing

How does it work?

• What programmes are available?

  Caring Universities offers a multitude of programmes to all VU (Ph.D.) students:

  • EsteemUp shows you how you can boost your confidence and self-esteem.
  • iSleep & BioClock helps you improve your quality of sleep and deal with different kinds of sleep problems.
  • MoodPep is useful for anyone who wants to learn how to improve or manage their mood. With the help of interactive exercises, a mood tracker, and a personal e-coach, you'll be on track to improving your mood right away. 
  • Rel@x will help you to understand and manage your stress. You'll get practical tips and tools to cope with the things going on in your life, as well as the support of a personal e-coach.
  • GetStarted lets you deep-dive into your own psyche to figure out why you procrastinate and how to overcome it.
  • LifeHack is the perfect program for anyone who wants to optimize their life. You'll get practical tools to tackle life's challenges and work towards your goals.
  • GetAGrip helps you to feel in control of your life. It gives you tools to handle your problems and to work towards your goals.
  • SocialLife helps you improve your social skills, teaches you how to make and maintain new friendships and relationships, and how to deal with adapting to a new environment or culture.
  • Good Enough teaches you how to deal with perfectionism and helps you break the pattern of 'never being good enough

  Our research on programme satisfaction and effectiveness shows that students are very satisfied with the set-up and content of our programs and show significant improvements after completing the modules.

• How are the programmes set up?

  Take a look at our programmes and choose the one that matches you the most. Made a choice? You can just sign up for free on the website of Caring Universities. After registering, you get an (online) personal coach and start the first module whenever you are ready. Your coach will guide you with feedback while you follow the modules.

  Each program consists of 4 to 14 modules. We advise you to complete 1-2 modules a week. One module takes around 30 minutes on average. 

  Do you want to first get an idea on what programme might suit you best? Fill out our ‘Mind-Health-Check’, a survey we send out once a year during winter to your student inbox to receive in-depth feedback on your mental wellbeing so you will have a better idea which programme fits you. The results of this survey will help VU to understand how students are doing, ensuring that the future programmes offered by Caring Universities match the current needs of students. Did you just miss the survey and still need help choosing the right programme? Then send an email to caringuniversities@vu.nl or contact a student psychologist or academic advisor.

• Scientific Research

  Besides offering free e-health programmes, Caring Universities researches the wellbeing of students. Caring Universities is embedded within the World Health Organization (WHO) College Student Mental Health Surveys (WMH-ICS) led by prof. dr. Ronald Kessler at Harvard Medical School. These international initiatives map out the state of mental wellbeing of students across the globe and thereby aims at improving our knowledge of college students’ mental well-being. Realizing the needs of students will help us in prevention but also in the early detection and treatment of mental disorders during university years. With the research funds we can develop psychological interventions tailored to specific psychological needs and offer them for free!

  How does this benefit students?

  Looking at the bigger picture, participating in the survey means that you are part of an international endeavor to improve student mental health. Even broader, this helps researchers across the world to understand student wellbeing and develop preventative and acute interventions.

  Students of the participating universities receive a link once a year in the winter to their student email. By filling out this survey you will contribute to  the research on student wellbeing. Besides that filling out the survey provides research outcomes, will students receive personalized feedback on their wellbeing that helps them find a fitting e-health programme or helps them find other uplifting solutions. 

  Check your inbox (or spam folder) and click on the link to the questionnaire if you would like to participate. Participating is completely voluntary. You are still able to follow e-health programmes for free if you decide not to fill out the survey.

  Curious about our research?

  Read the results of the yearly survey on student wellbeing, and the rest of our publications on wellbeing!