Warwick RECOVERS: Responding to COVID by Enhancing Resilience in Students
Globally, mental health and wellbeing have been directly and indirectly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Warwick RECOVERS investigates how Warwick students have been coping with the pandemic and its impact on their studies and daily lives. Data from the study will be used to keep students safe and well, to ensure the resilience of campus support services. It will also provide crucial scientific information on how COVID-19 is affecting people’s mental wellbeing — locally and globally. All Warwick students are invited to participate.
The university-wide project, led by Dr Nicole Tang, involves two phases: screening, through an online survey, and tracking, using devices developed by the industry partner, Moodbeam.
The study invites students on campus and abroad to share concerns about their wellbeing throughout the pandemic, linking those who are struggling with Warwick’s Wellbeing Support Services facilitated by Dr Hannah Friend, Director of Wellbeing and Safeguarding and an investigator on the project. Already, over 300 students have signed up for the tracking phase of the study, which involves monitoring sleep, physical activity and mood.
The study is supported by Warwick Student Union, as well as the Warwick Chinese Society and the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, ensuring that the Chinese student population at Warwick are well represented and that the data reflects the diversity of Warwick’s international campus in its response to the pandemic.
The project is a collaboration between the Department of Psychology (Dr Lukasz Walasek) and Warwick Manufacturing Group (Dr Carla Toro) and is supported by investigators Professor Sai Gu (Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor, China) and Professor Caroline Meyers (Vice-Provost, Chair of Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine).
Students from across disciplines are also involved, helping to incorporate varied experiences of the pandemic, lockdown and the University’s response.
The project is funded and supported by a PVC (Research) COVID research programme award, the Warwick Health Global Research Priority and the Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing Research