good MH support at LSE, Kings etc?

[ComplexNeeds]

How do you find out about the support universities provide for DC who have existing mental health issues please? It’s really difficult to tell from their websites and tbh they could ‘say’ anything on a website. How do we really find out?

Try talking to current students on Unibuddy?

I would contact the relevant officer at the students union. They should give you a response, warts and all.

Not heard if Uni buddy thank you murasaki
And hadn’t thought of the student union so again, thank you used up

Look carefully at the student experience in these London Unis, too.

Are International students prioritised for the accommodation close to the Uni? Are UK students in the Uni halls or expected to be in 'private' student accommodation? They can find themselves quite isolated if overseas students cling together, and the accommodation costs push people out of the centre away from the Uni, making it harder to socialise.

Though It may be that you are looking at London for the opportunity to live at home.

Mmmm you’ve raised some good considerations there. Thank you. It could be quite isolating. I’m wanting her close to home, so we can scoop up if necessary. She’d still want to live out.

I am going to make a sweeping generalisation but London places generally have a tough time re the overall student experience. Combination of geographical spread of accommodation, cost etc.

You want her close so you can scoop up, but I would look further afield. You are really only going to aim fairly infrequent home visits so an extra hour or two per trip maybe worth it for increased student satisfaction or MH support.

Look at things like high guaranteed first year accommodation close or on campus. Look where options may exist for 2 or 3 year accommodation too. Maybe where she can walk to campus so cutting down on transport costs.

I agree that the student experience is tougher in London and that a campus university with students in flatlets self catering and in close proximity to amenities is easier, eg York , Durham , Warwick off the top of my head. I have an anxious fresher at Kings who is commuting . This wasn't planned but with the extra concern of getting locked into his halls during covid outbreaks it has felt like the least worst option for him. All the online stuff means that they are not really plugged into support systems and haven't got a community as they normally would . You could take a view that things will not be back to 'normal' in 2021 and she could live at home as the social aspect of university will not be up and running or you could try and pick a university with facilities as above. All the universities are sadly aware of mental health risks to their young people and in my experience can be excellent at supporting an individual who has been flagged up to them and is asking for and engaging with help but they don't act on students missing class or not giving work in etc. This is where having friends can be important and thus the simpler set up of flats on campus works better.

We weren't impressed with the student support service at Kings ( DD with ASC)

DS has an anxiety disorder and has had to interrupt his studies twice due to his mental health. He’s in his final year at Imperial now and has had great support both from his tutors and the disabled students service. He declared his anxiety on his UCAS application and on his interview day at imperial there was a tutor assigned to offer him support. Shame the same couldn’t be said about Cambridge where the interviewer continued to fire questions at him during a full blown panic attack 😡

I know of terrific support being provided at Bristol and UCL but in both cases the student was asking for help and accepting the help offered. The universities are evolving rapidly on this issue but struggle with the concept of adult autonomy and how to manage it ime. We have had a family tragedy that wasn't averted despite multiple people knowing that there was an issue . The responsibility is left with the student but as we know a depressed young person who has little motivation and feels isolated and as if they are a failure for not 'enjoying ' themselves is very unlikely to ask for help.this is why I have a strong belief that the two safest options are living in a community or living at home. I have a couple of tips from my experiences that ii will pass on. Firstly insist that DC come home for 'half term' whether there is a reading week or not. A weekend is long enough. It acts as a circuit breaker and if you as a parent say you need them to come for granny's birthday or whatever excuse you can rustle up the DC don't feel that they are wimping out of university life . Secondly encourage them to join clubs if you possibly can. Having to attend meetings or training gives extra structure to their week and a responsibility to their peers to attend as well as a wider social circle with hopefully like minded people.
I hope I don't sound preachy , it is sadly a subject close to my heart.

I studied at one of the unis mentioned and left in the last few years. Their mental health support is shocking. They’re high flying unis who are driven to achieve academic results at the expense of the welfare of the pupils.

My advice is to phone Student disability services for any unis you are interested in and see what there response is on the phone. If they are friendly, helpful and give you lots of advice then that is probably what they are like for students. I can recommend Durham because of its collegiate system and college parents, welfare and senior tutors all on hand to help out

Thank you all so much for your advice and pointers. I think there’s a lot of truth in what you’re saying about London universities. I’ll be encouraging her to let them know about her MH before she arrives as they can’t help if they don’t know.
Sounds like you’ve been through a horrid time BooBoo and please preach away!!!

My d (recovering anorexic, anxiety) is well supported at imperial. They’re not in her face, but she know exactly what’s available and who to go to if she needs it. My son was at RHUL, has ASD, first time living away from home etc, coped but zero support even though they were made well aware.

Some good suggestions here. I would start with their websites, look under Learning Support and do searches for mental health.

I agree that London may not be the best and an extra hour or so’s travel time may be worth it for a more campus-orientated and nurturing experience with better pastoral care.

@HostessTrolley where’s RHUL please?

RHUL = Royal Holloway, University of London.

Oh is it Royal Holloway hostess? Interesting as I’d thought they’d be great and Imperial less so. She knows she’ll need to be upfront at the get go. A friend at Oxford gets amazing support but she’s not oxbridge and no longer wanting LSE. I think she’s deciding against the London ones. But wherever she applies she (we) need to know some support is there.
@yikesanotherbooboo interesting about Bristol as it’s had an horrific reputation recently regarding suicide rate and lack of mental health support. This reputation has seriously put her off.

@ComplexNeeds - yes, Royal Holloway, in Egham. He did a lot better when he got out of halls and moved into a shared house with postgrad students. He studied computer science (information security) but decided to leave this summer after three years with a BSc as he was bored and had a job offer too good to turn down. His job said they’ll fund his masters when he’s ready to do it.

Daughter is a medic at Imperial, can’t fault them. She’s in recovery but still has issues that she’s learning to manage - alongside obviously having to manage her food intake independently which is a big deal for an anorexic. They’ve been brilliant - as I said, they’ve told her what help is available and how to access it, tutor keeps a bit of a closer eye on her but they aren’t pushing anything on her or being OTT - it’s done wonders for her confidence.

Re Bristol: I suspect it is the recent history at Bristol that means they have had to up their game. I imagine the same for Durham. The student I am thinking of at Bristol was very willing to engage .

Just to echo other's thoughts, I went to kcl straight from school in a small west country town... It was a massive, massive shock even though my mh was OK. Living in halls is daunting but the scale of London, if you've not lived there before, is an added complexity that I really wasn't ready for. I scraped through my first year and fortunately hung on long enough to meet now-dh in my third but to be honest I wouldn't actually recommend London unis from that perspective, no (except royal Holloway, as pp said). Have a look at smaller, collegiate ones and also consider if there's a direct train home

A late interjection on this thread. DD has complex MH issues and I just wanted to flag how poor Sheffield Uni have been. We/She originally chose Sheffield on the basis of their ‘spiel’ because we believed the support offered would be good, it has been non existent. My advice to any parent whose DC have a clinical MH diagnosis and require the support of a psychiatrist and or psychologist would be to source these for yourselves before they head off to Uni...either using Zoom consultations or using your home town MH services. It was a BIG mistake on our part that DD was automatically discharged from local MH support and then just sat on a city MH waitlist with no support. The Uni themselves unapologetically offered her zilch. They can offer at bit of counselling for mild issues but nothing else....everything has to be ‘mild’ to fit any support criteria otherwise you’re stuffed and on your own. My DD suffered from lung damage after covid in March..the Uni medical centre won’t even give her a winter flu jab...once again we are on our own. So disappointing. I wrote to the Vice Chancellor with my grievance and we’ve not even had a response.

@Chalfontstgiles that’s awful. I’m so sorry to hear this. I thought Sheffield would have been goo as well. Thanks fir the heads up in getting everything in oka e prior to the move! I’m wondering if the process is made more complicated because they’ll be transferring from child/adolescent to adult services? So no continuation of care. I’m not sure adult services take on 17 year olds. My DD isn’t 18 until late August. I’d not thought of this.

I don’t think LSE did very much to help my brother (several years ago) when he needed some academic support. But probably better to ask more recent students.

I work at one of the universities mentioned negatively above, and I think that it is important to look both at the support offered centrally by the uni and the departmental support. Very honestly, our central support is good, but the implementation at department level is variable.

I’d suggest that you speak to the department in advance of them starting, that way support can be in place from the beginning. One issue is that students arrive, then start looking into gaining support, and while this is being put in place, students can struggle. We have met with students and their parents during the summer, so by the time term starts, we already know the student and how best to support them.

Another potential issue is that our students are adults (which a PP alluded to as an issue), so if they refuse support, there is little we can do. This is exceptionally difficult if a student is in crisis. Students can give us (either generally or specifying individual members of staff) permission to speak to parents, this can be invaluable when a student is struggling and refusing to engage with us. So if your daughter would be ok with it, I’d suggest setting that up from the beginning too.

Finally, as others have said, I’d recommend looking at campus universities. Far easier for students to adjust to when everything is contained in one place, and far more difficult for a student to fall between the cracks.

I can’t stress enough the importance of looking both at the central services and the departmental support - I would ask departments at open days.