The invisible problem? Improving students’ mental health

Conclusion
Mental health and even life expectancy are better for people
who have attended higher education compared to those who
have not. 88 But greater support is required to ensure students
are cared for mentally and physically before they graduate.
The policy recommendations in this paper respond to two
problems. The first is that students with severe mental disorders
are struggling to bridge the transition into higher education
due to the poor communication between different support
services. This is primarily for government organisations such as
the NHS to tackle.
The second problem regards students who suffer from poor
wellbeing, or what might be described as mental health
problems. Universities need to act to improve support for these
students by increasing funding for their counselling services
and reviewing their policies to see what is lacking and what
can be improved.
There is a link between poor mental health and student
retention. So the emphasis on student retention in the current
higher education reforms will, we hope, provide one further
reason beyond those mentioned above to support and nurture
all students.
www.hepi.ac.uk 53