Focus Group 1 3.6.15 Researcher: XXXX (Transcriber: XXXX) You are being recorded now and we are talking about the fact that you’ve all signed and dated your consent forms and have accepted those and you’ve all had your information sheet. So that just gives you context to what we’re talking about. However, you can bring up anything that you want to. Okay and if there is anything that we talk about that you find disturbing or distressing or you want some further clarification on, by all means let me know. So has anyone got any questions before we get started? No. No, alright. I can’t find my questions now, I’ve sat down and put them down somewhere. So just thinking before we get started, you’ve all had a look at these question about whether you’re, how you feel about the following statements. So some of you wrote, ‘my diet is healthy’ and some of you strongly agreed and strongly didn’t agree, so who agreed, who said that they thought their diet was really healthy? I did. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I did. Was anyone else different to that? Me because I put it as unhealthy because since I’ve come to Uni like where I’ve been on my own, I’ve not really necessarily kept up eating healthily like I should do. Oh that’s interesting. So do you think that the university makes an impact on the way that you eat? For me it did because I’m in 9 to 6 one day and I’m an hour away, so by the time I get in and out like that day I’m like I don’t want to cook or anything, so it’s like easier to grab a take-away on the way home, dare I say it and that’s not helped really. Okay what about you other guys, what did you say? Sorry? You guys you were saying your diet is very healthy? Yeah basically I mean we live together and so like for example she got a new book which is very interesting, because it’s a book, I mean for Christmas wasn’t it? Yeah. And it was like healthy recipes and so like sometimes we just try to cook something from there and yeah it’s very nice because it’s very like creative and yeah it’s just like a different way to cook something. But then like usually I know like sometimes it’s hard when you think I have no time and maybe in the morning I have to wake up and then I go to work or to internship or Uni or whatever and I mean we live like a couple of minutes away, but then like you think I have no time, but then usually for example I try to prepare like a packed lunch, I don’t know like a salad or something like this that I can bring with me. I will feel like full, but not full in a bad way, like full in a good way, without buying something like on the way. Also because it’s more expensive most of the time, so it’s better to do this. What about you guys, what do you think? I just want to say something in regards to my health plan actually, how I follow my plans. So my breakfast, really healthy it includes porridge with the fruits, start off the day. Then lunch again the fruits and salad and also broad ? diet and same in the evening. I also follow some sort of exercise, regular exercise and no, any sort of, no cholesterol’s nothing. Okay is that easy to do on campus here? Um, it is hard actually on campus, but we try to manage as much as we can. It is really hard actually because the food you can buy from here sometimes is not that good. You know that? You’ve pushed me on tape, to say I do know that. (Laughs). And also being a student, one more thing, sometimes it is very expensive being a student to afford the lunch. I mean I was just going to add to that and say that it is expensive here, some of the things, if not all of them and the other thing is there isn’t a lot of variety. The other thing is that sometimes you are doing your work, you’re finishing off an assignment or something or you have a class and you don’t have enough time to go out, you’re thinking oh it’s going to take me 15 minutes to walk down to, I don’t know, wherever a supermarket or even the Co-op, by the time you get back, it’s a lot of time that it takes. So then you are kind of forced to buy stuff from here and there isn’t a lot of variety, so that kind of makes life difficult. I mean I try not to have a very unhealthy diet, so lunchtime I would either have a sandwich or jacket potato and try and have some fruit, or one piece and yeah that’s about it. It’s interesting isn’t it because you’re all bringing together different points. I mean this is just like an opening questions just to throw things out there and you’re sort of saying things like health is a concern to you guys and you are trying to do things to try and mitigate around that, but the way that the day is structured, because I think to be honest I think it’s to do with room bookings our end, that we have to cram all the lessons in at once, so you don’t have to keep coming in every day. But then that’s leaving you with not enough time to turn around and actually have variety and choices that you would like. That’s a really interesting point, thank you for that. So can I ask you, this is a very broad question, our first focus group question, what does it mean to be healthy to you guys? So we keep talking about health, so what is it? Health is like mental, physical and social wellbeing according to the Hippocrates (?), the definition of health. So if you are mentally healthy and physically healthy and socially healthy, then you are healthy. It is not only if you are physically healthy you are healthy. So it must be mental, physical and social wellbeing, that’s health. Yes so you are thinking about it very holistically. Yeah. Can anyone add to that or challenge it? Yeah I think it’s like based on, not just like as he said, not just about like how much workout you do, which of course is important and what you eat, but it’s like your surrounding, if you are like in a healthy environment, like of course like being safe, having like good people around you, not taking drugs or smoking or these kind of things. So it’s about like everything that is around you that has to be healthy. Healthy I think it’s in the sense of good, like in a good way like on a good … And according to the ancient times if you want to add something on the top of ? definitions you can add, health is a definition of physical, mental, social and spiritual wellbeing. So you need to concentrate on God as well a little bit. Okay that makes sense. What about you guys what do you think, how would you define healthy? I think I’d say the whole like range of stuff, not just your diet, but exercise and how you feel mentally as well because if you are like you know depressed or whatever that would affect your diet and your exercise and other things in life and happiness. So yeah it’s like a lot of different things combined together. And you are talking about being able to relate it. It’s a balance. So interrelation and a balance. Anything you guys want to add? It’s not the law, you don’t have to add anything if you don’t want to. It’s like, I was thinking, I agree that it is a balance but I think it’s different per person because like when I was considered my healthiest, I was still like to a lot of other people they thought I was unhealthy because I’ve always been bigger. But I was still playing on like the school basketball team and things like but I was never, I’ve never been like size 10 or anything like that. So even when I’ve been at my healthiest I’ve still been considered unhealthy by a lot of other people and I’m like you don’t actually know what I do sort of thing. So that … Yeah I think … I mean … Sorry, you go and then you go. I think being heavy doesn’t mean like, it’s not about your weight. No. There are some people who maybe are bigger, just because it’s like your metabolism, it doesn’t mean like … But I think yeah it’s more based on yeah I mean on what you eat of course and then it’s just not on that. It’s just like on your, like how you live every day basically. Yes and what were you going to say? I mean it’s just a perception you know. You shouldn’t be like a doctor or psychologist when you look at somebody’s health, a person, he or she, it’s just a way of how you look at things. A person must be balancing, as she said, must be balancing even with weight or without weight, it doesn’t really matter actually. As long as you’re managing the thing as a person. Okay so there is a difference you guys are saying between internal perception and external perception, so how you feel about yourself and how other people may judge health. Yes. Is there anything you guys want to add to that? No. You’re happy. Right so let me ask you I’m going to properly throw a grenade in this, do you think Middlesex students are healthy? I think so because … Go on. Because there’s lots of like sport groups and there are loads of opportunities to do exercise I think, like we try and participate quite a lot don’t we. Yeah. Like we joined like cheerleading. And we just went to the gym before coming here. Yeah. Wonderful. We try and use the swimming pool as well, so I think there’s loads of opportunities. Also if you don’t have membership, you can anyway join like free activities, there are like walks and jogging sessions or like there is the ping pong, the table-tennis, the table-tennis outside the foyer like outside Sussex (?) House. So anywhere there are like opportunities. It was like Mental Health Week as well and I was working there and there is like another like Sport Week and you can go just to the gym for free. So like I think it is … So you are saying there are physical health opportunities. Yeah so many, yeah. What do you guys say? I think personally I would say something, a little bit more mental awareness in the students rather than physical things. They look alright physically, obviously being a young person you look always alright, but physical is not that much, you need a little bit of mental awareness. So I think they need to improve a little bit because sometimes the students, personally I would recommend or say, my opinion, they become so quickly you know like panic or give up or you know like frustrated. It’s not because of the studies or overwhelming situations or pressure you know, it’s something to deal with their, I mean um, IQ level, so they need to improve some … Are you talking about resilience maybe? I don’t want to put words in your mouth, I just want to understand a little bit more what you mean. I mean as you asked the question, do you think the Middlesex students are healthy, so healthy means mentally, physically and socially, so they need to improve their other skills, apart from physical things. Okay. I think socially like there are so many societies and so many opportunities, events or things to get involved in, in a social way. Like for example if you just, yeah I don’t know if you just go to the Students Union and ask which societies are here, there are like 30 maybe. So you can always join something in like a social way. Like I think the good thing of Middlesex is there is a lot of sense of community. So I really feel even if I’m away from, because I’m Italian, so I’m away from home, I really feel that I belong to something. I don’t feel like that I just come here for my classes you know. I really feel, because there are so many opportunities to get social like these for example. Okay and you wanted to add another perspective. Yeah I wanted to add to that yeah, that I mean I know there is a lot of stuff on campus available, but what I’ve found from my personal experience is, that even though there are a lot of things to do here, but sometimes you are so much under pressure to complete the work that you are not able to think okay yeah … even like the gym, I joined before, not last term, but the year before that, but then I joined the gym, but I used to think, when I used to go to the gym and then I used to go back to my work, I used to sometimes think oh my god why did I even bother going to the gym because it was taking time out of like where I could have just been sitting reading or doing some work, because I was so much under pressure, because I had so many deadlines at the same time. I kept thinking how am I going to complete them. So even though there are so many groups and like gym and sports and everything, sometimes you just feel, or when you have exams, you think oh my, like I just need to revise, how am I going to, I keep thinking what if I fail. So you have got so much of that on your mind that you are not able to take part in all the activities that are available. So I think that, being a Middlesex student, that makes it difficult to kind of, the physical activities and everything that are available, to take full benefit of them. Yeah but I think it depends definitely on your personality. Like for example I’m the sort of person, if I have like five deadlines in the same week, I know that I need to do something else, just because it’s like kind of refresh me. I know that if I do sport, because sport is something that just gives my mind away and then I know that then I can be okay to do, to keep doing my work. So I think doing something different or like joining a society, or going to a meeting, or going to a party, I know that it’s something that keeps me, like can make me work better I think. I mean it’s not like, it depends on your course and it depends on your personality, but I think like with the opportunities you have you can definitely … What are you studying? Journalism and media. So you can definitely do something. So anyone who hasn’t had a chance to say yet, do you think Middlesex students are healthy or not? I think the Uni, when they structure a programme or a course, they should put something in addition to that on top of that, to have something students to relax or take their minds away or compulsory something you know. Okay there’s some nodding going on. Yeah. You know what like when was it three weeks ago, I remember … The Health Week. Yeah there was the Health Week and people were giving massages for free. Yes I had one as well. You had one. I was doing my coursework then. It was so nice. Like I had two because I was an ambassador so I had to tell them like come and have a massage and I think for example that one, even if it was just for one day for like five hours, it was just nice to have something else to just, I mean if you wanted you could have gone. Anyone else? Okay we’ll move onto the next question. And don’t forget if you do have like a burning desire to come back to a question or you want to refer to something previously, just do it, it’s fine. We just want to hear your opinions really. So do you think Middlesex supports healthy lifestyles? So thinking about how you were defining health before you know very holistically, does Middlesex support a healthy lifestyle? I think it does because obviously they just had the Health Week. I think they’ve had that thinking in mind that they want to have these like healthy activities, the massage and other things available for students that are under a very stressful period of time coming to the end of the summer term. So they have so many deadlines, coursework, dissertation so that would help them, as opposed to like the physical health and mental as well. What about you guys? Yeah definitely. Yeah as we said before we have a lot of opportunities to be like, to try to be healthy so there is like just if you stay on campus. I think also like the fact that there are some screens around the Uni with all the things like going round, like there are people at the gym, people I don’t know like they sponsor all the activities or the sports, so I think that one is quite good because it’s always like in your mind. It’s interesting because when we were just chatting before we got started, everyone was like the food here is terrible, the food is really unhealthy and then when we’re asking questions about health you are like oh no it’s great, so I’m getting a bit of a disparity there. The food is very limited if you want healthier stuff because I’m not a massive fan of salads, so I normally try and have like other things. I can’t try and have like, like if I’m at home I’ll cook, not necessarily a roast dinner, but I’ll cook more veg like that rather than salad, whereas here it’s pretty much I find salad and nothing else really available because like the ‘eat global’ or whatever normally costs a lot more than you can necessarily afford. So it doesn’t necessarily help. Does the campus make a difference to your health do you think, the way the campus is set up? Yeah. I like the way that it’s set up, I like the greenery. Yeah. The garden. Yeah I think when you walk in and you just come through all the trees and the greenery, like you don’t feel that you’re in London. You feel like you’re in the countryside somewhere. Yeah. It’s like calming. I think also the fact that we are like a bit outside from the centre, it helps a lot in the sense that we like the Sunnyhill Park just there, I don’t know. Yeah and then we have like you have like, I don’t know, outside the library there is that place with like the garden. I think yeah it really helps you like just to be more like relaxed and then if you want to go to the crowd you can just take the tube. Yes. Does anyone have anything they want to say about Middlesex supporting healthy lifestyles one way or the other? It’s just like I think it’s a bit like catch 22 really when you have like the Health Weeks, because like you were saying about the massages and things like that, I think most of the stuff they were doing that week fell on the days I was in classes, so we really didn’t get to do much of that sort of thing. Yeah. So it’s a bit like if they have one day where it’s like, if it was this year, like if it was on a Tuesday, near enough I couldn’t really do it because I was in classes pretty much all day that day, so we didn’t get a chance to come out and experience it because we wouldn’t have time, because by the time you’ve queued up, got your food, eaten it and then it’s time to go into another class. So I find that sometimes it just needs to maybe try and spread the health, not necessarily over two weeks, but like have the same sort of activities over a variety of days, rather than just the one. I agree with that as well. So access can be an issue. Alright. Would you say there are barriers to leading a healthy lifestyle at University? Yeah. What are they? I don’t think so. We found … Go on. Basically we found that when you’re in the library and you’re trying to deal with deadlines, a lot of people, friends and other people that we just, were sitting there studying and they were eating chocolates and crisps continually. And even on my work experience, which was in an office, I found that some of the staff when they were there, they would be on the computer and they are sitting there with chocolates just eating, eating, eating. And it’s the stress of trying to make the deadline and then you just go for the junk food because it gives you a sugar high, whereas I don’t do that. I just have a normal packed lunch with sandwiches and one piece of fruit and try to have like a non- fizzy drink, whereas I find that people like in the library, especially people who are younger, like say they’re just 18 and in their first year or whatever, they don’t understand the, like not having healthy food while studying. So just any junk food, they are just having, or they’ll just head down to the chicken and chip shop and so I mean that kind of like ruins your health. And I take it you disagree, go on. Yeah just because I did a work placement for seven weeks, so I wasn’t in Uni and then it was probably my least healthy time because I didn’t have the sort of energy or time to do like go to the gym and do like when we’re doing cheerleading, I didn’t have lots of time to prepare and think about my meals and things, whereas now I’m a Uni I have all that time and I have so much access to like activities and things. That’s interesting. Has anyone else got any points to talk about, about barriers to leading a healthy lifestyle at Uni? I think it depends of course how far you live, like you live quite far, so of course if you take an hour to go home and maybe you’re hungry in the meantime, you will go and … Yeah because like last year I was only 20 minutes down the road in the Hall and so I’d walk to and from, so it’s a big change for me. You’re living at ? Halls? Sorry I was in the Halls last year but now I’m out in Harrow so it’s about an hour on the bus, well a bit less than that. I think that is very important, for example I don’t know, usually if I have Uni like for the whole day, I don’t come home because it’s nice to stay with friends and like I want to be healthy and social. (Laughs). But then usually like if I say I go to Uni and then I say okay in the afternoon maybe I have to come home, or maybe come back here for a meeting or whatever, or sport, then I go home and I have the time to cook. But I think yeah it depends like how far you live. Yeah that’s another point about having the time to cook, because I found like when I was trying to make my deadlines I’d be here like until about 9/10 at night and then when you go home you don’t really have time to cook. But I live with family so they’d already made something, but I find that you know you just go for something unhealthy then on the way home. Sometimes if you think okay you don’t have the time to go home and cook and then you think okay the next day I have to get up early as well that kind of makes it difficult. Yeah. Do student finances impact at all? Yeah because like last year it impacted, like it wasn’t as bad, but this year I’ve got like less money and like I said already the Subway and the Pizza thing here is cheaper than like the other stuff. I try not to have that all the time, but when you’ve only got like that money because you haven’t had time to get it ready, because you get up at 6 to be in for 9, I’ve not had a chance to sort out, because I only finished, got home like nearly 8 or 9 O’clock the day before, so it’s like when would I do it. So that day is like a lot more expensive for the health things. Okay. It’s not just that, it’s like ignoring the expense side of it, it’s just like I say it’s the Uni timetable again ,because the last couple of years like I’m aware that there are sports like afternoons where you can go along and have a go or do them sort of things, where you might be able to play an hour of badminton, when I’ve had the later night finishes, it always clashes with something and if it only runs once a week, you haven’t got an opportunity to go to the other things. So I find if you want to do, if there’s one particular sport you were interested in doing you’re blocked from that because of just the way Uni clashes. That can be quite … So is there anything else relating to healthy lifestyles and sort of being a student or being a student at Middlesex that you’d like to add? I think it depends because last year when we were in the Halls it was quite terrible because we had like, it wasn’t terrible, but like there’s a lot more drinking. If you live within the Halls, there’s a lot more drinking, a lot more health issues, because last year, like this year I’m eating more healthier again because I’m not, it’s pretty much just me, a landlord and one other guy living where I am now. But like last year in the Halls it was like, you’d literally, not necessarily peer pressure, but it was like oh we’re getting a pizza do you want to get one as well – oh yeah we’ll get one. It was like a sense of a community thing, it tended to react around, the community in the halls ended to react like around like the getting take-aways or going out drinking and in some people’s cases it was even drugs and things like that. I just find, because not everyone in the Halls is like that, but it’s just a case of when you’ve got a load of people, mainly 19 to early, mid 20’s, it was just very chaotic the first few months and I think there were some people who lived on take-aways nearly every day last year and that is going to have a big impact on their health. That is an interesting point because are students supposed to be healthy? I think everyone is meant to be healthy. Or at least try to. But if you think about you know the kind of stereotype first year student, the Fresher? Drinking and partying. (Laughs). But I think like of course, like being healthy now because now I’m 20, so being healthy now of course I know is going to be good when I will be like 40. So like I know it’s about cholesterol, about like or like diabetes. Diabetes, sure. All these kind of things so I know that if I, also because my family tend to be like diabetic, so like I know that if I eat too much sugar now, it’s not like something that will definitely happen, but like it might happen when I would be like 40/50 maybe or even before. So I think it’s very important to think about, not just, I mean you always say like oh just live today and you never know what might happen tomorrow, actually with some things it’s true, like you have to take opportunities, but then about health, I think it’s very important to think about it. Like exercise almost daily ad doing like things like, you know like, I don’t know if you can get the bus or go and walk to the station, it’s always better to go walking, even if you think oh yeah but maybe not, but then it’s always better, because you know that it’s something good for you. So more activity the better. Yes definitely. Anything else about … For your mind as well. Yeah for sure because before you were saying about them being interrelated. So is there anything else about being a student and ideas about students and health and things that you’d like to add? Student finances generally you know seriously makes a huge impact on students life as she said. They keep increasing the amounts and figures keep going down. My first year they gave me something and then it decreased and now it decreased to the level so … So what impact does that have on your health and wellbeing? You can’t manage you know being a student, what can you do and you want to achieve first class, what you can do, you need to study. Look I’m doing biomedical science and I want to achieve first class and I have to study at least 8 hours extra you know. So if I work in ? of my life and then how I put on myself it’s really hard. They don’t care you know. If you write a number of times, even if you write David Cameron, I wrote to David Cameron this time, they came back to me normal, they said oh whatever they decided is fine. It’s also like because like you have to pay to go to the gym. I know you can go out and just run or whatever, but if you want to use like the gym equipment, you’ve got to pay to go to that and like even if like Middlesex Uni gym I believe is cheaper than like normal gyms, but if you are struggling to pay for your food, how are you going to afford the gym or whatever and then you’ve also got to think about recreational time. Everyone always has a go at me like, oh you don’t really go out and I’m like yeah because I can’t afford it. So obviously that then begins to effect on the social side of everything as well because you can’t necessarily afford to go out, if you can’t like have a job either alongside it and things like that. Yeah as I said before there are some like free sessions that you can always join, like walking and jogging and swimming, like Tuesday and Thursday it’s always for free. You don’t need to have the membership, you just need to be a student here. So for example that one is very good. I know in terms of social thing it’s harder because of course like no one is going to give you a drink for free, but like yeah you can join societies and they give you money to run events. So in a way like you’re … I don’t really know much about them. So I’m running a society so like … What society are you running? Journalism society. And so like I didn’t know about all these amazing, and it’s amazing the fact that they give you money to sponsor your society and to, I don’t know equipment like a t-shirt of whatever, and then like if you want to do events and invite guests and if you want to give some refreshments you can always ask for money for that, because the university in the end they have the money. So like to do things that are like academic or something good like they give you the money. And like I don’t know you can organise parties and have drink deals with the Uni as well, so in a way like you can always like try to find a way. I know sometimes it’s hard because like giving £2.00 it’s £2.00 but there are opportunities. Okay. I was going to say yeah it’s good that there is stuff available, but I think another thing is also when you’re younger you don’t know how to balance your life between health and study and social and drinking and family and then having a part time job sometimes when you have one, so it’s all of that as well. So it’s also like knowing how to keep a balance on everything and obviously trying to make the deadlines and do the studying that you need to do so … I don’t know if you feel this, but we’ve covered a lot of ground now. So we’ve established that you guys are thinking about this holistic idea about health and we’ve debated about student health and Middlesex students and barriers and pros and cons of health and being at a university. So just to sort of bring things to a close, can you tell me a little bit about what you think the University could do to promote healthy lifestyles. So what could the University do to really support you guys to be as healthy as you possibly can be, in that really broad sense that we were talking about? I think a good thing was that the price of fruit went down. A bit of variety and that sort of thing. Yeah the variety of the food and also we need some more canteens you know that’s not enough. So that is about food provision, so more choice around healthy eating, sort of fruit, more canteens. And also there isn’t enough Halal food options. Yeah. So that as well. Absolutely so not taking account of the demographic. That are healthy. They cook always same food you know, seriously you know. I’m looking from last three years, same thing you know when you go there, nothing changed, every day the same. I think, I don’t know maybe they could just do more events in terms of health like I know like at the beginning of the year like for the Fresher’s, they do like a lot of, they show like all sports for example, like physical health. I think maybe they could do just more, I know like there is like support for mental health, I know you can like book an appointment and go and talk to them, but maybe they could sponsor it more because know like not a lot of people know it. So like, maybe run like more events you know to let people know. So for example I think the problem health with the Mental Health Week was that it was at the wrong time of the year. I was working there and there were like almost no people and it was so like useless, because of course the university pays for it and pays for the professional massage people and then like you think like it would have been amazing if it had been three weeks before, just to have like people, you know in order to make people aware about it. So yeah I think maybe there could be like more opportunities to be healthy. I remember last year there was a thing, it was like a bicycle in the quad and you were cycling and then you were making like a juice, do you remember? Smoothie. Yeah like a smoothie. You didn’t dream that it happened! Yeah, yeah. I did it actually. it had like a strawberry inside and you were like cycling like faster, faster, faster and then you had your smoothie, it was amazing, something like that because you had fun and then you know you are doing something healthy and you drink something. Great. You know the events whatever they run in regards to the health wellbeing or awareness, they need to run I mean according to the timetable. So when you finish your session, when you finish your, everything, exams or whatever, or hand in this, oh you can come and join. Even these sort of studies they need to do it in the middle. So then it’s more helpful, advantage you know. Yes that makes sense. It’s like I say the timetable again, so if you have a week dedicated to health you can’t really just operate during say like 12 to 4 because that’s when we have like pretty much all our lessons. It needs to maybe extend some of the days to maybe 6 or 7 O’clock at night. Okay it might not be that busy by then but it then gives like the chance for people who might not have been able to go during the day, and then, or just like more awareness of like the health or mental side, like the mental wellbeing like that sort of thing like. Like you’ve got to book an appointment, like I don’t think the whole time I’ve been here we’ve been told like where to go and how you’d do that sort of thing. Like I’m sure if you asked at Uni Help and that it would help, but some people like me, I probably wouldn’t go and ask someone because I’d be, I don’t want to say scared, but I wouldn’t want to be ashamed or anything like that because like you’re having to go through however many people to find out where it is, to sort it out and maybe just promote that or whatever. That’s a really good point. Does everybody know about Wellbeing, where they could find it and how they could get there straightaway, because that is quite interesting I think that is something that has come up? Yeah okay. Anything else? Yeah I think maybe have more of that like say the university website page where they make announcements, have more announcements like you know this is where you need to go if you need such and such information, please contact this person, or email, or go to this room if you need information on I don’t know health, lifestyle, diet, etc., counselling even. I think they did put up counselling a few times but yeah. That’s a good idea. That’s really helpful we can appreciate you know Uni Help. So at least there is that central point. Yeah. Yeah. Okay so we have been talking about what the university can do to promote healthy lifestyles and you guys have touched on a few things so do remind me if I forget anything. You’ve been talking about physical health, you’ve been talking about food, you’ve been talking about kind of planning workloads and I think things like the Mental Health Awareness Week have been happing according to when it’s a UK date, rather than when students are around. Yeah, yeah. So what about, I mean things that spring to mind for me which we haven’t touched on are things like alcohol, Students Union, Smoking cessation or the smoking … Smoking is a big headache you know. Okay, go on. I just want to say something in regards to that. Of course. Wherever you are going you just pass from one place to another, you just go a few steps you know and you inhale a lot of chemicals you know, passive smoking you know. It’s really unhealthy. But not so many people smoke I mean compared to where I’m from, from Rome. In Rome almost everyone smokes, or used to smoke or has … or is smoking like sometimes. Like here there are not so many people smoking I think. I think like compared to other universities, I mean I compare to Italy because I have no idea about here, like people are much more healthy than, definitely. I was very surprised, no one is smoking here. In my class they are doing biomedical science and I think they try to be scientists or doctors you know, I think out of 60, I think 30 students smoke. Oh no! And they smoke like a chain, you know chain smokers, like one after another. I think it just varies, like that might be one case, but like I think it’s more of a case, I think the problem with the smoking here is that they’ve tried to make designated areas, but people don’t go to like those designated areas and it’s just like people everywhere. And I mean I don’t mind smokers and that, I’ve not necessarily grown up around them, but I’m used to them and I don’t mind them. It’s just a case where I find for the people who do want to avoid it, it’s just a bit like, it’s like people tend to go to places but then they’ll move back or they just ignore it. I don’t think it’s necessarily really policeable but it’s just, I can’t really explain it. There is some nodding going on. I mean the other thing is I have like, I just start coughing with smoking because I had bronchitis before once, a few years ago and I just can’t stand it. So if someone is smoking near the thing like I walk past and I have to go like this and quickly run past because once I inhale a bit I just can’t stop coughing. Okay so we’ve talked about food, mental health, the environment, timetabling, managing stress levels, anything about alcohol? You don’t have to make any comments if you don’t want to. Yeah I find the drinking, the amount that, I know my friends that drink they go down to the pub near Uni and the amount that they do is a lot and I don’t think there is enough information about safe drinking. So that is off campus drinking rather than Student Union? Yeah. I think it depends, like I say I said that within the halls where I was like there were quite a few who were out drinking, not necessarily every night, but it was like quite a regular thing, whereas luckily the flat I was in like we didn’t really drink that much, or it would be like a couple of nights. It’s just I think a lot of them when they’d come up, it wasn’t necessarily going to the Union or whatever, in a way I think it’s not, the drinking here I don’t think is as bad as some of the other universities, because like I went to another university and within the Halls, like the same size of like the Platt and halls here, they had a bar within the halls. So there was a lot more drinking going on there than like here. Although there was like a pub or whatever next door, it cost more or if they had to walk up here, I just don’t feel it’s necessarily as bad here but obviously in isolated cases within like the halls it can be. Okay. I think I don’t know it’s more, it’s common to say like you are at university so you drink, basically because you don’t have like to go to work every single day, so you can drink in the week and so it doesn’t matter which day. But yeah I think it depends of course on the people you hang out with or like, I don’t know yeah. But it’s more like, I think like, rather than smoking, like drinking is a bigger issue here, I think in general like in London, UK. It’s more common. Bu yeah I think like I don’t know it’s not like a general thing. It depends of course like on how much you drink, what you drink. Yeah of course. It’s individual then. Yeah. Okay. So just to wrap up is there anything that the university can do to promote healthy lifestyles, any more for that? Just advertise more like what health, I mean even on the campus. Somethings should be compulsory you know, strictly you know and forced on the students, they need to follow, seriously. Okay. It’s like I know, I can’t even remember the name of it, like there’s the doctor’s surgery what’s linked to it down the road. Ravenscroft. That’s it, I can’t remember the name of it, but I’ve got to go to the GP and can never remember the name of it and if I’m at home it’s like what’s the name of it, how do I … like I just feel there needs to be like because a lot of people who are just here for the course, who weren’t in the halls, they weren’t aware that the GP was just down the road. They thought you had to go to like Golders Green or wherever, so I think things like that, maybe you need to promote it more. That makes sense, thanks for that. Again that is actually true because I was working as a student helper yeah and a few new students came and after they enrolled and they got their ID cards, they were asking us like how do we get to the doctors, what do we do, we’ve just come from abroad, how does that work. But because I was working as a student helper, the university had already told us that the doctor’s surgery was down there. But a lot of people that just came new from abroad, they didn’t know where to go. So yeah that … Just that I think my friends who used to go there when we were in Halls, they said the opening hours and that could be quite limited down the road because it said it clashed with quite a few of their timetables as well which made it difficult and I know it’s hard to timetable everything like you say because obviously the Uni, doctors and everything. But it’s just a case it was like thy were struggling to fit that in with studying, trying to sort out their like, trying to eat healthily, do all the sports they wanted to, it was just all like trying to get that balance, because obviously they were struggling to get in or whatever. Right that makes sense. So just to bring it altogether is there anything about health and wellbeing, being a student, being at Middlesex that we should have asked you that we haven’t? Can you think of any area that you think oh why didn’t they touch on that? Students are very busy on chatting nowadays these days you know, they do focus as a part of health you know, they are always busy on the phone or whatever sources of chatting you know, they are always busy, Facebook or whatever. So they are busy in all ways. So are you talking about things like taking time out for mindfulness and meditation or just stillness and quiet? Yes. Is there anywhere in Uni you can do that? There were some mindfulness sessions for example in the Mental Health Week, but maybe they can do it more. I wanted to join it, I was working so I couldn’t so I was like I really need mindfulness. Because in the future if they can’t control now it could be a serious hazard you know, it might cause serious damage. What about sexual health and STI’s? Mm. I mean maybe have more awareness of that, because I know they have it at the beginning of the year at the Fresher’s week but have it continually going. They do often, I think the ?? the sexual awareness I saw a number of times, you know bringing to somethings you know. I suppose it depends on what you are having to look at, why you are out and where you be, but we’ll flag it up it’s useful, thank you. Okay. Anything else? No. Anyone got anything to say they haven’t had a chance to? There should be some common events you know, apart from their own societies, sometime like they have their society as you said, a few societies, you go to your own society, they have common, something in common and I will say that you know. So something bigger. Yes that’s very important. Right thank you very much for all your help and support with this project. We’ll turn off our devices now. …………..