AskUs: Student Wellbeing

Bystander intervention is an approach that can be used to improve situations where it looks like a person could use some help. The approach is about being an active, positive contributor – someone who challenges problematic behaviour effectively and respectfully. In a situation where something bad is happening bystanders are witnesses who think ‘somebody should do something about this’. There are two types of bystanders:

1. Passive bystanders are people who might think ‘somebody should do something about this’ but then choose, for whatever reason, not to act.
2. Active bystanders are people who think, ‘I should do something about this’ and then do something to try to improve the situation.