Mental health of students in higher education

Appendix 2Internal liaison within highereducation institutionsNottingham UniversityIn 2007, we appointed a mental health advisor. This was the culminationof our work in response to the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ report onstudent mental health (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2003). We recognisedthat, although there were many areas of good practice in the university,there were also some gaps. A steering group was formed including thehead of student services, head of the university counselling service, GPfrom the university health service with responsibility for university liaison,and the disability coordinator. We aimed to shape a new role which wascomplementary to each of the services listed but which did not overlap withexisting provision. We agreed that an individual with a psychiatric social workbackground or mental health nursing background would best suit our needs,and that this person should be under the line management of the head ofstudent services.University of Sheffield: a collaborative studentmental health strategyTwo years ago a student mental health strategy was adopted at theUniversity of Sheffield, based on a framework drawn from the Royal Collegeof Psychiatrists’ 2003 report. We set out from the beginning to managethis on a collaborative basis, bringing in all the major internal contributorsto student mental health provision. Our aim in doing this was to create acoherent approach to student mental health in the institution and to avoidsplits between contributors. Our strategy leadership group includes: thehead of student health and well-being, the head of counselling, the headof our disability and dyslexia support service, the lead GP on mental healthfrom our in-house medical practice, the head of our student support andguidance service (which includes a critical support team) and the students’union welfare officer. The group meets every 6 weeks or so. The benefits ofthis approach have been:greater coherence in approach and a single, unified strategyincreased service integration and multidisciplinary workingRoyal College of Psychiatrists75