Supporting student mental health

[Sophforthe100]

I'm a very long standing Mumsnetter who has changed my name to support this important campaign and I hope you will too. Universities should have a legal duty of care towards their students. This would mean consistent support systems across the Higher Education sector and clarity for both students and providers about what to expect. This could save some of the 100 lives lost to suicide each year, and lead to better mental health support across the board. Please read more here and sign the petition so we can get this debated in parliament: #ForThe100

We agree that Universities should not be expected to replace the NHS.
And many have excellent mental health support systems in place for their students. However there is no consistency in approach across the board and clearly some Universities are failing some students because 100 students take their own lives, on average, every year. That is 2 per week. And the families affected believe that a statutory duty of care would change that.

What would a duty of care look like? I think that’s what I’m struggling to get my head around.

At work a duty of care, for example, would be a safe working environment, risk assessments, reasonable adjustments etc.

And the rate of suicide amongst young people not at university suggests the problem on a whole is separate to universities.

I'd rather make it out alive (and make contacts with staff, tutors and make new friends) rather than have amazing engineering labs, but that's just me

I think if you were driving over a bridge/going up a lift/getting on a plane you'd quite like the engineer who designed it to have been adequately educated! Or maybe you'd be happy to leave it to chance?

Only within the confines of the employment though. Student welfare is there for students' 23/7 lives, their social lives, feelings of loneliness in their halls, stress from their PT job. That's a massive difference.

Employers don't have a duty of care to an employee who is depressed because they're lonely at the weekends. And at the end of the day an employer does have the legal right to end someone's employment if their health, mental or otherwise, precludes them from doing their job properly.

Every loss of life is an absolute tragedy, and I do agree that support should be offered. But the suicide rate of students isn't higher than for the rest of the population of young people.

I'd be happy to support ring fences EXTRA funding for uni counselling services, but decent NHS resources are the real answer.

I'm so sorry, I'm sure you're all wonderful people IRL but I can't believe that we are debating student suicide and being clever about this.

All props to the OP for bringing this up. I can't really figure out if others actually attended a prestigious uni that turned out to be underhanded or is this Alright Jack attitude normalised with some.

I'm sure that families of people (listed on the website) would appreciate you telling them face to face how it's better that uni's their children attended now have better facilities at the expense of their dead children.

However, I will not be debating whether preventing student suicide is okay or not.

Ta and goodbye

We went through this on the other thread. You dont understand what 'legal duty of care' means and how its different and not different to university pastoral support.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/estimatingsuicideamonghighereducationstudentsenglandandwalesexperimentalstatistics/2017to2020#suicides-among-higher-education-students

This was the accompanying Statistician's comment

Today's data show that the suicide rate among higher education students have decreased over the last four years (academic years ending 2017 to 2020).

However, low numbers of suicides per year make it difficult to identify significant differences.

While higher education students have lower rates of suicides compared with the general population of similar ages, every suicide is a tragedy for those involved.
This analysis aims to provide insight and help those who develop suicide prevention policies and initiatives among higher education students.

I would contend that the focus should be on the wider societal challenge and the need for adequate NHS investment.

Ime the mental health support available for students at universities is better than at any employer I have ever worked at. I’ve never had an employer where I can the same day be sat down having face to face counselling with a qualified counsellor.

I do agree that universities should not have a one visit only policy, I’m surprised if anywhere does but students should have as much ongoing support as they need. Saying that a friend works for John Lewis and had very bad mental health crisis and was only allowed six counselling sessions so I’m not sure that making universities provide the same support as employers will get you what you want. 🤷‍♀️

You dont understand what 'legal duty of care' means and how its different and not different to university pastoral support.

Definition: A duty of care exists when it could reasonably be expected that a person's actions, or failure to act, might cause injury to another person.

In a university context it means knowing what universities' responsibilities are to its students, and vice versa, and ensuring there are consistent policies and support systems in place across the sector.

For example, if a student is having a mental health crisis and the University knows they plan to take their own life, and the student has given consent for their parents to be contacted, the University could be held responsible if it does not contact the parents.

Or if a student is being dismissed from University and it is known they are suffering a mental health crisis the University should not continue to dismiss the student by email. If emails are automated, there should be processes in place that can override this.

These are real life situations families in this campaign have experienced.

My son had catastrophically poor mental health while at university (a psychotic breakdown) and the very severe difficulties that we faced from the university were not to do wi the presence or absence of care on their part. The difficulty was the absence of a protocol that enabled them to liaise with us or provide us with any information. Because DS was an adult they literally could not tell us anything, or even allow me access to his corridor so that I could knock on his door and ask him to see me (or check if he was still alive).

I do understand that there have been moves to improve this situation by allowing students to specify permissible contacts in advance, but I don't know how adequate the new protocols are.

So it is that specific situation that I would campaign about, not a much broader 'duty of care'.
I don't know what the precise definition or practical consequences of a statutory duty of care would be, or how students would benefit from it. Universities already provide counselling services. In cases where these are inadequate, they sure as f*ck aren't as inadequate as NHS mental health provision, so I tend to think that we should focus on funding for th NHS. I live in a university town and my GP practice is also a university practise. The needs of students are part of its remit, as they should be, and students with mental health problems can go to their doctor just like anyone else can (and need their doctor and specialist mental health services to be properly funded and properly designed).

Sorry - just seen your post immediately before mine, op. I can see that the oblogation to have consistent policies such as those that you mention would (in principle) be helpful. So if aduty of care facilitated improvement there, then i can see the point of it.

I wouldn't bet on it working in practice, though, since the NHS has such a duty, and its bureaucratic fantasies were just the papertrail towards their failure to prevent my son's suicide

Thank you @Sophforthe100 for highlighting this. I have signed.

Mums who are on here helping their DCs plan their Uni applications, please read this very moving story of one Mum's sad experience, and then sign and share the petition (trigger warning):
One Mum's Fight for Change ...
Petition

I've signed and shared this petition. I've had 2 of my children go through university and a third due to go soon.

I've also supported hundreds of graduates at a major employer including resolving workplace issues.

There is a HUGE difference in the maturity and vulnerability of a student transitioning to university and one who is entering the workforce after 3+ years at university.

Clarity and consistency on the legal duties that universities should comply with do need to be properly debated, by all interested parties.

Signing the petition will help get that debate underway.

More info here www.forthe100.org.uk/

Going to a prestigious/competitive uni such as LSE/Edinburgh doesn't mean you'll end up with a good support system. Sometimes just the opposite

Indeed. Typically RG universities score lower on pastoral care type questions in the NSS compared to post-92s.

I work as an academic in a post-92 and can testify to dealing with many, many students suffering from MH problems. Obviously I am not trained to deal with these issues directly, but we do have a good well-being service to support students. We have all had some training in how best to signpost students to the correct support, and protocols are clear. We also take the trouble as a (small) academic team to really get to know our students, learn their names, make them welcome, and keep an eye open for any potential problems.

BUT - none of this is any substitute for proper MH services delivered by the NHS.

Thank you - completely agree. So pleased the petition has taken off in the past few days. We need more people like you to help get the 100k signatures we need for a proper debate.

Today the petition got the 100,000 signatures it needs for a debate in parliament, 3 days before the deadline.
Thank you to everyone who signed and shared.

@Sophforthe100 well done, really good news.

Petition closed yesterday night with over 128,000 signatures. Amazing!