How to Manage Your Mental Health During Your Work Placement Year
Originally published: 1st September 2025
Latest update: 12th February 2026
Choosing to undertake a work placement during your studies offers a wonderful opportunity to sharpen your skills, gain real-world experience, and make new professional connections. But despite its benefits, taking on a placement role can feel overwhelming at times, often requiring a change of pace and plenty of new tasks and responsibilities to get used to.
It goes without saying that you need to take care of your mental health when starting on this new part of your academic journey. Here, we share some of the ways to manage your mental health while working on placement.
Take care of your body
A healthy body supports a healthy mind, so it’s important to make sure you get enough sleep, exercise regularly, and eat a balanced diet while on your placement. You need all the energy you can get to make the most of the experience, and consuming nutrient-dense foods will help you to do just that – the best part is, you don’t have to splash the cash to afford healthy snacks. Likewise, even a short walk on your lunch break will help to get your body moving so you feel refreshed and ready to work.
Practising good sleep hygiene will ensure that you get enough quality rest – make sure your bedroom is dark and quiet at night, and avoid screen time an hour or so before bed for restorative sleep.
Stick to a daily schedule
Work can easily pile up and start to feel stressful if your time isn’t well managed. By sticking to a regular routine with the help of a schedule, you can take a lot of the guesswork out of what you should be doing and when – freeing up more headspace and allowing you to focus all your energy on the task at hand. While there may be some parts of the day that you have less flexibility such as while you’re at work, you can focus your schedule on the parts of the day when you do have more control, to help make your responsibilities work for you.
When creating a schedule, remember to fit in plenty of downtime. A successful schedule is a manageable one, that allows you to fully switch off after the working day is done.
Maintain social relationships
It’s common for students to feel homesick when moving away from home, and these feelings can become even more noticeable when relocating alone for a placement year. Balancing a new workplace, responsibilities and routines can feel overwhelming at first. Maintaining a strong social support system through friends, family or peers is essential to help you navigate this transition with reassurance and stability.
Seek mental health support
The first steps to boosting your mental health are to look after your physical health, organise your schedule, and stay connected with friends and family – but what should you do if you need a little extra help?
Many students benefit from seeking professional mental health support, whether from a counsellor or another healthcare professional. Your university and work placement provider can support you throughout your work placement, helping you manage any challenges as they arise. You can also access resources from the NHS or Student Minds for guidance and support at any point during your work placement.
Author bio: Sasha Reynolds
Sasha is a student advisor who supports various mental health initiatives. She supports students to thrive from the start of their studies through to the moment they graduate, with plenty of academic guidance and advice.
