The role of appreciative inquiry in sustaining academic mental health

We would like to start by offering a short background context. In the past three years the Counselling Services Unit (CSU), within the University of Malta (UoM) collaborated with various other University Departments and Faculties setting up psycho-social-educational programs enhancing mental health awareness among university academics, including doctoral candidates and early researchers. These programs emanated from researched observations carried out at UoM whose results were in line with the existing body of knowledge in the mental health field, tallying with data obtained from the community of knowledge (Camilleri, 2023; Cefai & Camilleri, 2009; Cuschieri et al, 2020; Dalli Gonzi & Camilleri, 2022; Metcalf et al 2022).  Research indicates that appreciative inquiry and self-reflexivity sustain academic mental health through the provision of a democratic, bottom-up process allowing various voices to be heard, while commencing a conversation which can initiate social movement (Cooperrider et al, 2008). Oddone et el., (2021) note how peer-mentorship enhances the creation of reciprocal emotional support, motivation and a sense of community, supporting the creation of a shared vision for the way the group wants the organisation to function (Mohr & Watkins, 2022). To this end a conversation needs to start between the institution, the academic and the student for the benefit of the latter and the development of a sense of achievement in the former (Wisker & Robinson, 2016). Personal and bottom-up critical self-reflexivity are viewed as an essential tool in bringing about social movement to generate organisational change (Valeix, Moss & Morris, 2020), thus enhancing academic mental health.