University hires 28 ‘well-being officers’ after student suicides

A UNIVERSITY is to spend £1 million a year on “well-being officers” amid a raft of measures to counter growing concerns about mental health, after a spate of suspected student suicides.

Bristol is hiring a team of 28 full-time mental health advisers who will be embedded in academic departments and cater for the welfare needs of students.

The move comes amid concern from parents about how their children will cope with settling in at university, and the pressures of student life.

Mark Ames, Director of Student Services at Bristol University, said the university had been reviewing its support for mental health issues in response to the increasing numbers of students who struggle with anxiety, depression or other conditions. Last academic year, there were five cases of suspected suicides involving students at Bristol University.

“Among the student body as a whole, greater numbers of students are experiencing things that impact on their well-being,” Mr Ames said.

“We are also hoping to get on to the front foot and be much more proactive in our work with students.”

He said lecturers and personal tutors, who are meant to oversee academic development, felt that much of their time was spent dealing with students’ emotional well-being.

“A lot of the academic staff felt they were ill-equipped to deal with these issues,” Mr Ames said. “We are trying to equip students with the ability to manage their own well-being.”

Mr Ames said that parents were increasingly asking at open days about what provisions the university had in place to support students’ mental wellbeing.

Bristol University is strengthening its counselling and help services, and setting up a mental health advice team which prospective students can contact prior to the start of term.

Mr Ames said they were also bolstering the capacity of university GPS, so they can provide same-day mental health appointments to students.

A report published last year said that some universities need to triple their funding for mental health services if they are to meet growing demand from students in need of support.

The paper by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) think tank said the scale of the mental health problem among university students was “bigger than ever before”.