Building a Mental Health Supportive Campus Through Psychoeducation: Collaboration Between UNJ and PCU India

Abstract

Student mental health has become an important issue in higher education, as academic and non-academic demands can affect students' psychological well-being, learning processes, and academic performance. Limited mental health literacy highlights the need for promotive and preventive interventions. This community engagement program aimed to improve students' knowledge and awareness of mental health through a Mental Health Psychoeducation program integrating Mental Health Literacy (MHL), Psychological First Aid (PFA), and Mental Health First Aid (MHFA). The program was conducted on 5 August 2026 at Pimpri Chinchwad University (PCU), Pune, India, involving 142 undergraduate students from various academic disciplines. Program effectiveness was evaluated using a single-group pre-test–post-test design. The results showed that the mean knowledge score increased from 9.54 to 10.22 (out of a maximum score of 15), indicating an improvement in participants' understanding of the topics presented. Knowledge gains were observed across all three measured domains, with the greatest improvement in Psychological First Aid (PFA). These findings suggest that Mental Health Psychoeducation has the potential to serve as an effective promotive strategy for enhancing university students' knowledge and awareness of mental health. However, the findings should be interpreted in light of the limitations of a single-group pre-test–post-test design without a comparison group and an evaluation that assessed only short-term changes in knowledge.