Thread by @DrPetra

It's great to see more projects launching on #AcademicMentalHealth
Over time we can look forward to learning from them and applying findings to our practices.
Today I'd like to look back on how we got to this point as many working and studying in unis don't know the history /1

It's so important that #AcademicMentalHealth is being recognised more widely (in some spaces at least) but we need to acknowledge this hasn't come from nowhere and is rooted in a whole range of problems, prejudices and oppositions /2

Using my own work as an example, let's go back to the 90 and 00s when I was doing my PhD and postdoc on sensitive topics. I had no provision made for my own safety, or my participants. I kept asking for this. Minoritised scholars had written on this, but there wasn't much /3

As we know academia is extremely prejudiced and then, as now, discrimination was rife, accommodations were difficult to obtain, pastoral care was viewed as an inconvenience and something that required no training (that could be given to women/junior staff to do) /4

In that environment asking for help was a sign of weakness. Raising safety issues was viewed as unprofessional by white men whose byword for research appeared to be "I laugh in the face of danger!" Machismo, risk taking, extractive practices and putting others in danger = norm /5

I put papers in for conferences where I wanted to talk about, or run workshops on #ResearcherSafety and #AcademicMentalHealth. These were mostly unsuccessful. But I did find bringing up these issues in talks on other topics was always very enthusiastically received /6

Slowly but surely I found myself being invited to give talks about 'danger in the field'. But at each of these I found people would corner me after and say 'the danger is where I work'. @DrGaryWood documented this in his PhD too /7

I noticed in some fields (medicine, psychology) a lot of resistance to discussing anything safety related, particularly if it was linked to critical takes on doing research or ethics. And especially as it was mostly driven by the ideas of Black women, disabled and LGBTQ folk /8

Even in areas citing scholars who were involved with addressing rights, justice and access there wasn't much action based on readings. Again, it seemed that raising 'this problem's just happened to me' or 'I am not coping mentally' marked you as incompetent and best avoided /9

All the while in unis we had programmes of teaching that caused or worsened mental distress; competition; bullying and harassment and other toxic problems; the rise of neoliberal practices; and the suggestion that suffering and overwork was part of learning. Sound familiar? /10

I faced a real contradiction in my work. Whenever I went to give a talk or workshop on safety and wellbeing people couldn't be more appreciative (same today). But when I tried to get into spaces to address this at higher levels - impossible (similar today) /11

So approaching research funding councils, professional bodies or university leaders to ask them to acknowledge issues around staff and student #MentalHealth and #safety there was resistance. Exposing problems reflected badly on universities and nobody wanted that. /12

Resistance was also over productivity. If you're giving people accommodations, support, care, alternative working practices etc it disrupts the competitive, hyperwork-focused goal for academia. (The pandemic let us all see that more clearly but it was obvious decades back) /13

'Now Petra', you may think, 'you're obviously deluded. This isn't about people not listening to you or you having no influence. It's about you not really being as good as you'd like us to believe. Someone else could have sorted this out easily' (people have said this to me) /14

The answer to this is that nobody has been stopped, in all this time, to sort out the problems we're seeing and damage that's been done. And I wasn't the only person trying. But we consistently struggled because there was, and is, huge resistance to change /15

But also at this time I had *way* more influence than I did now.
I was younger, I had a habit of being photographed for academic publications wearing extremely stylish boots, and as the resident Agony Aunt at Men's Health I was in the press *all the time* /16

In 2000 I won Cosmo magazine's 'Woman of Achievement' award for my services to education *for this exact work*. (guess what, my Uni didn't want coverage of this and I had to fight to get some mention from my professional body). I co-hosted a weekly radio show from 2003-2007 /17

I was the advisor on sexual health to the Department of Health in the 00s, advised the World Service, served government enquiries, presented TV shows and challenged broadcasters, very publicly, when their standards fell. I was the advice columnist at the Telegraph for years /18

All of this work gave me a channel to talk *outside academia* on #MentalHealth and safety but also attracted me very much to funding bodies and research organisations. I had a lot of opportunities and contacts on my side to bring change and STILL they resisted, shamed, blamed /19

In 2005 (on the back of a lot of the above) I ran a UK-wide survey on the scale of bullying for the Times Higher. It didn't tell us anything we didn't know and very little had changed, but it was designed to hold unis and funding bodies accountable /20

We asked, as part of the launch of the research, for research councils to get on board and acknowledge bullying in academia was a problem that was making people mentally unwell and at risk. I bet you can guess what their reaction was? /21

Also in 2005 I published the 1st edition of The #ResearchCompanion, building on what research and thinking existed at the time on safety/wellbeing. It's (to my knowledge) the first mainstream methods textbook to centre participant and researcher safety as a research priority /22

I certainly wasn't the first to think about these issues, but I know it was novel to put them in a research methods textbook. Not least because authors of established methods textbooks wrote to me expressing their surprise and concern that *they had never considered safety* /23

I thought it would be a good idea to get funding to investigate #ResearcherSafety and to identify ways (outside of standard health and safety) to address their diverse needs. I applied to many funders (including ESRC, Wellcome, and Leverhulme) and had no luck at all /24

The feedback I had (when I got it) was
- safety/welbeing is not a priority
- we support our funded researchers
- universities/supervisors should be doing this work

Except it was (and is) a priority
Funded researchers aren't supported
Unis don't do the work /25

I found that with the advice giving work I was doing on and offline with the media and the research and writing I was doing in academia I could combine these to create useful support packages for students and staff and help unis that did want to improve things to do so /26

And that's what I've been doing all this time. The pandemic,as you can imagine, has made things infinitely more complex. I wrote #BeingWellInAcademia so people could get hold of the resources I'd collated and advice I could pass on so nobody had to be alone, even in lockdowns /27

But back to the present, as you can imagine I am relieved and pleased that #AcademicMentalHealth is now much more a topic of conversation - there are numerous funded projects and work that individuals have started (e.g. @ZJAyres work in STEM) that have made a big difference /28

However, a lot of what is done around #AcademicMentalHealth in unis is uncritical, designed to maintain not challenge the status quo, and in many cases actively harmful. You only need look at #AcademicTwitter and #AcademicChatter most days to see how people are struggling /29

And when it comes to #safety for researchers the work is even more poor. There are some strategies, but a lot of it isn't fit for purpose and rarely acknowledges or attends to the needs of diverse students, staff, participants or communities. So much more is needed here /30

One thing I've learned from the decades I've been an Agony Aunt is people often absorb - and use - really unhelpful messages about self-care, #MentalHealth and wellbeing. There is a danger of this being replicated in a lot of research and activity on university campuses /31

We also run the risk, currently of #AcademicMentalHealth becoming a hot research topic, with lots of people scrambling to research it, but little immediate change on campus for students and staff at a time when it is most needed. /32

Worse, the problems of academia that cause #MentalHealth distress and put people in danger are also driving the research agenda. If silo working, competition, overwork, precarity are underpinning research on #AcademicMentalHealth (which I know from feedback some are) = bad /33

You may be reading this thinking 'I've been doing this work too! why didn't you mention me?!' And the truth is lots of us are doing this work but are not connected. I'd love to hear from anyone doing this work as I'm starting to collate project lists so we can find each other /34

This has turned into another one of my Cassandra threads, so before it feels too negative let's remember
- people are trying to make a difference
- there's some amazing, critical work being done
- we're exposing and challenging harms
- academic abuses are no longer secret /35

I'll continue to work with unis, provide my #RecoverySyllabus, and shout loudly about #safety, rights and #AcademicMentalHealth
You should know I approach all organisations I hear about doing this to offer my help. It is telling who are willing to listen - and who ignore /36

If you're working in this area as a researcher, funding body, or uni please note:
- just because this is a new area to you, doesn't mean it is new to others
- there is a history, there are casualties (including those who died because of toxic academia)
- build on what we know /37

- Indigenous, disabled, LGBTQ+, women, and people of the global majority (and all intersections of these) were the originators of these conversations on safety, justice, rights and wellbeing. Their legacies should be honoured in all #safety and #AcademicMentalHealth research /38

As @JacquelynGill reminds us with #TeamMuskOx and all our learning about solidarity and sticking together attests, we will not bring change by working apart or against one another in ahistorical or single subject focus ways. We are always, always #StrongerTogether /39

Ask yourself 'who am I bringing in? who am I leaving out? who might this help? who could it harm?' as we continue to work on #safety and wellbeing.

ps. unis and funders must acknowledge their role in causing problems before they genuinely commit to solving them /40

Finally, there are many people in all areas of academia who want to change things and avoid people being damaged or exploited by universities.
As this area continues to grow it should reflect and represent the diversity of student and staff lives, experiences and need /41

In case you need it:

Resources on safety
theresearchcompanion.com/safetyprotocols

Resources on bullying
theresearchcompanion.com/bullying

A link to a longer thread with loads of free support resources for rights, #MentalHealth and care

https://twitter.com/DrPetra/status/1240679784683843587?s=20