How can Graduate Teaching Assistants support and promote student mental health?

Abstract

Student mental health problems are rising and were highly prevalent even before the COVID-19 pandemic (Grubic, et al., 2020; Sheldon, et al., 2021). Undergraduate students, particularly those who arrive with pre-existing conditions are a group whose mental health needs to be supported during those first few months and throughout their degree (Garlow, et al., 2008). As members of the academic teaching community, Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) play an important role in contributing towards a university-wide approach to good mental health, whilst keeping within the limits of the role. Drawing on the academic literature and over a decade of personal and professional experience across 5 higher education institutions, I argue there is a great opportunity for GTAs to positively influence the student university experience, through simple gestures of kindness, empathy, and a shared sense of humanity. This reflective piece supports these claims by drawing on theories such as intergroup contact theory (Allport, et al., 1954), and empirical studies which have looked at mental health stigma. Practical recommendations are made, with a reminder that GTAs must also look after their own mental health.