What can help students and staff members to stay healthy?

On Tuesday, 7^th May 2019, Technische Universität Dresden and the health insurance company “AOK PLUS – Die Gesundheitskasse“ signed an agreement to cooperate on the project “Needs-oriented and targeted prevention of psychological stresses and burdens in the studying environment and the university setting“. The cooperation will initially run until autumn 2022. TU Dresden as an educational institution, training provider and employer is therefore playing a pioneering role in this important field.

Mental health risks and mental illnesses have been on the rise in recent years. A mental illness, which is often associated with a substantial decline in the affected individual’s quality of life, is a significant disruption not only for the person suffering from the illness. There are also far-reaching consequences for family members, relatives, friends, colleagues, fellow students, and ultimately for society as a whole.

Within the framework of this project, TU Dresden and AOK PLUS want to develop and scientifically analyse a whole set of measures designed to boost mental health. This includes designing courses of study and employment at TU Dresden in a way that promotes health as well as handling psychological stress while safeguarding health. In addition, students and employees are to be equipped with the ability to recognise the first symptoms, thus enabling the early and easy accessible prevention and treatment of psychological disorders.

"Demands in the work, study and private spheres have increased considerably in recent years. Despite a decreasing number of sick days taken, the relative rate of absences from work, lectures and examinations with mental illness stated as the reason is growing. Depression and panic attacks, for example, are also on the rise among students," explains Dr. Andreas Handschuh, Chancellor of TU Dresden. "This is why it is so important to us as a university to support this preventative project that our scientists and the AOK PLUS are collaborating on.”

"In recent years, the number of work days lost due to mental illness in Germany has almost quadrupled. At AOK PLUS, it is important for us to counteract this trend with suitable preventative measures, especially in the university environment," explains Jens Hoßbach, Regional Managing Director of AOK PLUS. "Our experts will support TU Dresden in the process. The goal is to offer needs-based prevention and intervention measures in order to reduce psychological stresses for the tens of thousands of students and employees at TU Dresden.”

"The cooperation project between scientists from TU Dresden and AOK Plus gives employees and students the unique opportunity to not only use traditional preventative psychological and relationship-based measures to combat mental burdens and stresses, but also modern, evidence-based measures from the field of E-mental health, and to apply them based on concrete, individual needs," emphasises Corinna Jacobi, Chair of "Clinical Psychology and E-Mental Health" at Technische Universität Dresden. "The traditional boundaries of the four preventative action fields – nutrition, exercise, addiction and stress/relaxation – can be transcended by developing innovative, app-based and interconnected intervention modules and by supplementing them with modules from new action fields. We are very excited about the opportunity to drive these measures forward and to evaluate them over the next three years".

"The work environment is on the verge of a transformation. We are talking about the digitalisation of work, about flexible forms of work and about blurring the boundaries between work and private life. This change is already in full swing at the university," says Prof. Andreas Seidler, Director of the Institute and Polyclinic for Occupational and Social Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus at Technische Universität Dresden. "This change is associated with psycho-social challenges for employees and students alike. How can work, research and teaching at TU Dresden be structured to keep the associated health risks to a minimum? Where do employees and students see a need for new, health-promoting offers at TU Dresden? And which health-promoting offers are effective and can actually prevent illness? By working together with scientists and practitioners, with TUD employees and students, with local stakeholders and AOK PLUS, we want to find answers to these questions – in pursuit of a healthy university.”

"Since 2017, University Health Management for employees and students has been firmly anchored at TU Dresden and has the aim of continuing our development as a healthy university”, says Dr. Astrid Friedmann-Ketzmerick, Head of TU Dresden's Occupational Health Services unit as well as of University Health Management. "Collaboration with health insurance companies in establishing and implementing further health programmes and preventative measures was and is of great importance. It is particularly gratifying that scientific projects here at TU Dresden are supported by health insurance companies. These projects will result in new offers for employees and students that can be integrated into the University Health Management’s portfolio."

Media Enquiries:
AOK PLUS
Public Relations
Bernd Lemke
Tel.: 0800 10590-41507


Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus
Public Relations
Stephan Wiegand
Tel.: 0351 458-19389


TU Dresden
Press Office
Konrad Kästner
Tel.: 0351 463-32398