Health and wellbeing
Someone to talk to – when and where you need it With so much focus on wellbeing and mental health, the good news is that there is plenty of free support available if you are finding things tricky. And, moreover, universities have really stepped up their support in recent months – not only in terms of what they offer, but also how they offer it, so accessing support, additional information, or reaching out to someone if you just want to ask the odd question, has never been easier. The University of Nottingham launched the platform
MyWellbeing this year, to provide students with quick and easy access to mental health and wellbeing support. “It has been designed in such a way that everything can be quickly and easily found,” says Doug Little, senior project manager at the university. “You can book an appointment with a support and wellbeing officer and find self-help resources including topics around meditation and mindfulness. It's structured so there's a space for events, for appointments and for resources, keeping everything easy to navigate in a single location.” Doug says it's allowed them to really try and
revitalise how students interact with those services, as traditionally there was a lot of back and forth with email and phone calls. “Now students can take ownership and easily book things online when it suits them and their timetable and the system also creates a protected, up-to-date record of student interactions,” he says. Doug highlights that the way the university interacts with students has changed significantly since Covid, when a lot of their records may have been paper-based for example. “We need to be able to work more effectively online
and we're also responding to how students want to interact with us,” he confirms. “We want to ensure those services are as accessible as possible because some students might be put off if they need to speak to someone in the first instance.”
Duty of care Cardiff Metropolitan University’s director of students services Kirsty Palmer says it saw a 30% increase in 2022 alone in applicants declaring a disability or mental health issue, “The relationship we have with our students is different from that of either schools with pupils or statutory services with service users,” she says. “They are paying a significant fee to come and study with us, and we feel a responsibility to support them to get the most from their time with us.” Palmer says universities have a responsibility to make it as easy as possible for all
students to seek the help they need. Cardiff Met uses a ‘single front door’ approach. “Students don’t have to know which kind of service
or support they need – they just tell us their problems and challenges and then the professionals in the team work with them to design a comprehensive package of support, which might include guided self-help, alternative assessments of work, group therapy or 1-1 counselling,” says Kirsty.
Power of partnerships In June this year, the government announced that up to £3 million of investment would be available to close the gaps between university and NHS services. Simply put, the aim is for students to benefit from better joining up of mental health services to prevent them falling through the gaps at university. The new scheme will bring together university, NHS and mental health services to create regional partnerships which could include physical hubs that students can visit in-person. One such example that is already up and running is the
Greater Manchester Universities Student Mental Health Service. Launched in 2019, it is a partnership between Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and the region’s five universities. It provides mental health assessment, support and treatment to students and the service is open to students at the University of Bolton, University of Salford, University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and the Royal Northern College of Music. A University of Manchester spokesperson said: “In
recognition of the vital importance of mental health support for our students the University, in partnership with the other HEIs in Greater Manchester and the NHS, has invested in a sector leading mental health service for students with significant mental health difficulties. “This provides a specialist service that our in house
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