Mental health of students in higher education

Appendix 1understanding of, students’ mental health needs within the local educationand healthcare sectors. This is achieved through:steering group meetings each term attended by representatives of thenetwork partnersactive linking with key working groups, committees and teams in localmental health services with individual steering group members takingresponsibility for particular teams and sectors.publication of a regular Network Newslettermaintaining and developing the Oxford Student Mental Health Networkwebsite which provides up-to-date information on mental healthmatters, resources and current researchdelivering cross-institution regular training on student mental healthmatters – recent trainings that have had attendees from all of therepresented institutions have included ‘Managing out of hours crises’and ‘Mental health problems in male students’.For further information, go to www.osmhn.org.ukCambridge and Anglia Ruskin universities: networkto promote liaison between universities and the NHSCambridge and Anglia Ruskin universities have established a network ofrelevant and interested university and NHS personnel to promote liaison andcommunication between the NHS and the universities. The process of settingup the network involved gathering university support by including an item onthe university senior management committees’ agenda and using contacts toinvolve key NHS personnel. A conference was organised to raise awarenessamong the universities and the NHS; high-profile speakers were invited andthe aim was to discuss the implications of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’2003 report on student mental health. Invitations were sent out to GPs,psychiatrists, community mental health workers, counsellors and therapistsworking with GPs, the NHS and universities, university senior administrators,tutors, nurses, chaplains and bursars. Following on from this, a network wasformed of relevant and interested NHS and university personnel to considerthe local provision of mental health services for students in the light of theCollege report and to investigate ways of improving the coordination ofmental healthcare for students by strengthening liaison between services.The initial priorities of the network were: health promotion, continuity ofcare, identification of mental health advisors in universities, identification ofstudent mental health advisors in local mental health services, collaborationin students’ treatment and issues of confidentiality. Several usefulmeetings were held but it proved difficult for NHS partners to sustain theircommitment given the pressures of other work.The main components of the service are:24-hour confidential service for students, Linkline (www.linkline.org.uk)clear emphasis on holistic student health (encompassing mentalhealth) in primary care through a very well-used web resource,www.camstudenthealth.co.ukRoyal College of Psychiatrists73