Rise in students seeking mental health support at University of Salford

More Salford University students are turning to support workers for help with their mental health.

The University’s wellbeing and counselling team has trained advisors who can support students. They are also there to point them in right direction of professional, medical help.

However, although the University does a lot to help students with mental health, lack of resources means there are limits.

Alice Sugden, student opportunities coordinator for Salford Student’s Union, said: “The only way their support could be improved is if they just had more resources available, which obviously isn’t their fault, but they just have a massive demand on them because there is a lot of students of face these issues. If they were given more resources, they could help even more students.”

The Student Union Wellbeing team aim to have ‘peer to peer’ support for students in the future. This would give students struggling with their mental health someone to talk to.

The University itself offers support and advice to all students struggling but they also encourage students to seek medical support from their local GP.

More and more students have been coming forward for help with their mental health.

She stated: “It is a growing issue unfortunately.”

The increase in students seeking help with mental health may be due to a number of reasons such as the pressure of the workload, money worries or part-time jobs.

Upcoming help:

We’re holding a Psychological First Aid workshop on the 8th December. You’ll learn about mental health stigma and how to support people experiencing mental health problems. Click the link for more info- https://t.co/KFYuqUNVY8 ??

— USSU Opportunities (@USSUStudentOpps) November 28, 2017

The Students Union is offering a workshop on Friday 8th December 2017 from 9:30am to 4:30pm in University House at the University of Salford.

This workshop, named the Psychological First Aid Workshop, will be run by a lecturer from the University. It will touch upon stigmas around mental health as well as how to help combat mental health issues.

Alice Sugden of Salford Students Union talks about the help provided:

For more information on the workshop, please visit:
https://www.salfordstudents.com/events/psychological-first-aid-workshop-c1bf

The map below provides locations of help centres available in Salford: