Student living specialists, Scape has launched a new wellbeing initiative with Love Island’s Dr Alex George. The Fresher & Healthy service has been developed to help ensure students are feeling physically and mentally well, and socialising safely, as they start or head back to university life this year.
Scape has teamed up with Love Island’s Dr Alex George, a certified A&E doctor, to offer guidance to students that face uncertainty surrounding their wellbeing due to Covid-19. Dr Alex George has worked with Scape to produce a series of tips and advice to address the main health and wellbeing concerns of students who will be returning to academic life during the pandemic this autumn. The advice will be on offer to students via Scape’s social channels and website this academic term.
As part of the initiative, Scape is providing a new service that will be available to students on a weekly basis from the week of 5th October. This will feature bookable one-on-one health consultations with private GP service, Gogodoc. Students that book a consultation will receive a free physical examination and mental health advice by a general practice doctor. Trusted patient information and reassurance will be given to students as part of the consultation process, as well as advice on the correct course of action or prescription based on their health concerns.
Along with the consultation, students will be given the option to receive a flu vaccination. They will also receive a free Fresher & Healthy kit packed with essential wellbeing items that can used in and around University, including an Ally face mask, Hande hand sanitiser, a discount on Vitl nutrition supplements and healthy refreshments such as a Equinox Organic Kombucha and Properchips’ Sea Salt Lentil Chips.
Scape’s new Fresher & Healthy initiative strives to make a tangible difference to the wellbeing of its students at a time when university life is somewhat different to how it used to be. The events of the last few months have meant that students are now left with feelings of anxiety and worry regarding their health and social life in the upcoming academic year. Aiming to reassure residents, the new initiative will provide an offering that can help them to overcome the fear that they have towards socialising and being in a new student environment during the pandemic, as well as helping to reduce the risk of ill health among students
Dr Alex George, Fresher & Healthy Celebrity Ambassador, explains:
‘It is vital that students take care of their physical and mental health when they start or go back to University during these unprecedented times.
For the majority of students starting at University, it will be their very first time away from home. In order for them to embrace this change and the uncertainty of this new situation, it is crucial that they are offered the right medical knowledge and health advice to best prepare them for life as a student this year.
Helping young adults to feel safe, by providing them with the correct medical insights and practical health advice, is an area I’m very passionate about personally, and so it’s a pleasure to be working with Scape on this Fresher & Healthy service to help support and protect student wellbeing.’
The initative follows Scape’s recently announced partnership with student mental health charity, Student Minds. This new partnership ensures students and staff at Scape are equipped to help improve mental wellbeing at a time when university life will be somewhat different to how it has been previously.
Scape has also launched a new app that aims to maintain student wellbeing among its residents. The app allows students to directly contact a a residential team member, trained in mental health, for support and help if they are struggling. Once contact has been made by a student, advice and guidance will be provided by one of 65 mental health trained staff and referrals to a psychologist can be made if needed.
Neil Smith, Scape’s Managing Director says:
‘Empowering students and ensuring their wellbeing has always been at the heart of everything that Scape does. We feel strongly about our responsibility to help and support student’s physical and mental wellbeing, particularly at a time when young people may feel worried about starting or heading back to university.
The start of a new academic term is a crucial period for any student, by offering this new Fresher & Healthy service, we feel confident that we’re providing students with the best pratical health advice, insights and offerings for them to feel relaxed and safe whilst at University and socialising with their peers.’
