DD isn't going to let her university know about her mental health conditions?

[AveryPope]

DD was out of education from 16-19 and did her post-16 education from home, due to OCD and anxiety.

She has had therapy and is no longer on any medication and wasn't referred to adult services after CAMHS as they didn't seem it necessary.

This, however, will be her first time back into an education setting (is 19) and I think it would be wise to have put on the UCAS application where it asked about mental health.

AIBU to think she should let them know?

Absolutely she should. Universities are well used to dealing with mental health issues, there won't be any stigma.

YABU.

If it rares up they will find out! No need to let them know she has suffered in the past. Let her enjoy being well!

I'm an OCD sufferer. And god do I love the times I can be normal and not be "the girl with OCD"

She should make her own decision about this IMHO.

She definitely should let them know. This will make it SO much easier if she is unwell at any point dying her studies.
She can contact the relevant people directly if she doesn't want to discuss her MH with her academic tutors.
She should think of it as an insurance policy. Hopefully it will make no difference, but there as a safety net if she should need it.

University lecturer here. It's not too late to let them know when she gets there. But definite advantage in doing so: they will be able to arrange special support and if there is ever a problem, e.g. in meeting deadlines or panicking in exams, they will be in a much better position to help her if they already have documentation.

I would reassure her that it is still possible, still a good idea, and that her tutors will not be surprised or shocked or think any less of her ability. These problems are not that uncommon and they will have dealt with similar problems before. Tell her to find out both if she has a personal academic tutor and who the general pastoral support officer is. Always easier if you have a list of potential helpers before there is a problem.

She doesn't have to. She wants a fresh start. The services will be there if she needs them.

She might not want to put it on the UCAS form, but she should certainly tell Student Services/Students Union when she gets there. so many students find it daunting when they first go, even if your mental health is robust it can be very difficult at first and she needs to know that if she does struggle someone will be looking out for her and support her.

No harm in not putting it on the application. Once she has a place she will probably get the same question from the university direct - she can declare at that point if she chooses to.

While I understand about the fresh start, it is also worth pointing out that any disclosure she might make will be confidential and only accessible to a limited number of people who need to know. If she prefers not to disclose, absolutely her right. However, please let me urge her if there ever is a problem to get medical documentation straightaway, not wait until she finds out her final results. We cannot arrange Special Circumstances in retrospect.

Oh misread it. Anyway, her choice. If she needs them to know, she can tell them.

If she fails to tell them and then runs into problems, it's harder to deal with the course and the MH issues and the stress about coursework could make the MH worse.

She should make her own decision, but whatever she does, she really needs to get in touch with Student Welfare when she arrives. My dd has had loads of support and when something really bad happened to her, it made it much easier that she was already known to them. She would have found it virtually mpossible to start building the relationship with them from scratch. On a practical level, they can arrange things like extra time and quiet rooms for exams and extensions for essays and stuff like that.

And it makes no difference that it wasn't on the ucas form. That was only relevant for whether she got a place, not necessarily relevant for gaining support from here on.

DS suffers from biological depression. We queried with his school whether or not to put it on his application as he wasn't sure if it would go against him.

Advice was to put it down as Universities are bending over backwards to prove their pastoral care and it might actually work to his advantage.

He did and, as a consequence, he also gets extra funding and was offered accommodation very close to campus. (Not sure of the accommodation was because of that but it makes sense to me!)

From our experience, I'd say she should.

It is best to let them know. Even if she doesn't want or need any support from the uni services at this point, it will be much easier and much quicker to access them in future if they are already aware.

Universities are big places - her lecturers/the majority of staff she comes into contact with wouldn't know even if she did let the support services know (unless she agreed to it), and the approach is very much that she is an adult etc.

No it's not only relevant for her place as that info wasn't released until she got her place.

Might keep persuading her.

Another lecturer here - we encourage students to disclose any health conditions which could impact their learning as early as possible so staff can support them if required. Staff will be discrete and aren't going to shout about it to her classmates.

Avery just a heads up, there is a discussion on the Further Education section you might want to look at.