Over the last few weeks we have spoken a lot about the mental health crisis facing university students in 2018. Through our guide to a healthy freshers we have expressed a few of the ways we feel students are able to alleviate symptoms and cope with their new surroundings. While it is a must for students to live in a way that minimises these symptoms what are universities across England doing to confront this elephant in the room. This is something we intend to have a look at throughout this article.
Kooth
First off we should mention the wide array of different solutions offered by charities and private companies. Kooth is an online counselling service for under 18’s and students offering free and somewhat anonymous consultations between the times of 12pm and 10pm (6pm to 10pm on weekends. While this service mainly offers continuous sessions (one a week available) it is also a great way to react to emergency situations or immediate care. If the student feels as if they are struggling a counselor is only a few minutes away. In comparison to the average waiting time of a month or more on the NHS Kooth comes as a much needed upgrade.
Nightline
Another great service ran for students by students is Nightline. Nightline has been offering a wide range of mental health services since the 1970’s and is now available in over 30 institutions. This allows students to share information and receive support at times where previously help was unavailable. The use of trained student volunteers allows the user to connect and feel comfortable with whomever they are talking to. Nightline is a great utilisation of the growing sentiment around helping fellow students cope with mental health.
Mentoring
One of the most effective methods used by universities to combat mental health is the mentoring and academic assistance they provide. Mentoring can allows students to get whats concerning them off there chest while academic assistance can work on improving and managing there workload. This assistance can be important in the lead up to exams when there is large amounts of pressure on students to perform well. This can lead to anxiety and other issues but if the help is there this can often be avoided.
While there is still a long way to go before the university system has adequate tools to deal with the issues it faces technology and traditional methods are allowing some level of monitoring and support for the student body. To find out what we here at Cathartic are doing to help explore the rest of our website. In case you or those around you need urgent help click the links found below.
If you are seeking to tackle mental health within your organisation click here to find out more SpeakOut
If you or a loved one are concerned regarding mental health visit the NHS