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?

@DominaShantotto Can you share why you didn’t want the Mental health mentoring support?

[quote Shimy]@DominaShantotto Can you share why you didn’t want the Mental health mentoring support?[/quote]
Just because I felt it wasn't needed - I'm a mature student, I was capable of navigating myself through to find services if I needed them, and one of the ways my MH manifests itself is I have incredibly good insight if I'm starting to sink down again and strategies to cope with them.

juno I hadn’t realised that there’s a statutory obligation to provide MH support as well as SEN. I suspected SEN support would be a requirement but hadn’t realised MH - albeit it would come under disability, wouldn’t it? But that is interesting thank you.
@DominaShantotto thank you for this insight. This is what I need to ensure is in place. That she knows where to go, who to see and how to get the help she needs, IF and when she needs it. Like you say, if you’re struggling it’s hard to find the resources. I want her to ensure her ducks are in a row before she starts. That includes university services as well as outside services. She’ll be entitled to DSA for various reasons.
@onyourway that’s also very helpful! I’m assuming your DS didn’t know which university town he’d be going to (firm v insurance) until results day in late August. So you only have a few weeks to get all that in place. Is that correct? I know you can do the DSA forms in advance regardless of uni but the GP, disability services, student support etc etc need to be done post results?
We can’t get her into adult care until she’s 18 & she doesn’t turn 18 until end of August. I’ve rung around a few private adult Psych’s but they won’t take her until after she’s turned 18. So she’ll only have a week or so with a new adult psych before starting uni. Im thinking home town psych as we won’t know the university until results day. Albeit her bday will be close to results day. That feels very last minute to be organising psych care.
hostess so sorry you & your DD have had a crappy time of it. MH provision is simply dire and made much worse since corona. Sadly, so many self harm & have suicidal tendencies that even these are asked to join the back of the queue. After 6 months of waiting we gave up and went private. It’s stupidly expensive! But we didn’t have much choice.

We had a gap year, so in a way we had more time pre uni.
I would just start talking to Camhs about the handover, how it will happen, when, where her Adult MH services will be?

@onyourway

We had a gap year, so in a way we had more time pre uni. I would just start talking to Camhs about the handover, how it will happen, when, where her Adult MH services will be?

Presumably since the OP went private for her DD’s care, her DD isn’t with CAMHS?

OP, did you read the link to Leeds Uni I gave you? It gives a very good idea of some of the typical resources available.

Happy new year to all!

@DominaShantotto thanks for the info, i was thinking perhaps the mentoring support was dire but I see it was down-to personal choice.
We can definitely start the conversations about adult services this year, so we are well prepared.

@OP Similar experience with MH provision here and we’ve always had to go private in the end, infact CAMHS at last meeting advised to ‘get in touch with private psychologist’ as there’s not a chance in hell DS will get treatment in the next 18mths at least. It’s very very expensive but when your dc’s health is at stake you just do everything you can and we’re lucky enough to be able to finance it so far. I cannot imagine how families in similar situation & on low incomes cope. Our experience has led part of my work to find ways of providing support for vulnerable children. Anyway, don’t mean to bore, it’s a journey!

Thanks for the Leeds uni link juno I will most certainly look at it closely. Thank you again!

I’m a little bit concerned about the expectations and dare I say it, naïveté from some posters about the extent of the support universities can offer. Yes, there are normally university GPS but the student needs to register with them. We don’t have our own psychiatric teams and in very stretched Trusts, being a student can be unhelpful and delay support from the NHS as students are perceived as being “managed” by university services. If your child has mental health difficulties please encourage them to speak openly and frankly with university student services teams so that they have an honest picture of what’s available and what the local NHS mental health support situation is so their decision on where to study is as informed as it can be. The statutory requirements do not mean the level of support some people seem to expect.