Making new friends is a big part of university life. Supporting friends who feel vulnerable or ask you for help can feel overwhelming at times and it's important you look after your own mental wellbeing too.
Student Minds have a great resource to help you to help your friends. Take a look at their Look After Your Mate resource for practical tips and guidance. If you want to know how to use non discriminatory language when talking about mental health look at Language Matters from Teenmentalhealth.org
The information in the rest of this section is for RVC students and staff, we are here to offer support; letting the Advice Centre know about your concerns is perfectly normal.
You can contact a member of the Advice Centre team if you are concerned about a friend or would like support yourself - advice@rvc.ac.uk or 020 8051 3500.
Students and staff can also report any Mental Health concerns they have for self and others using the University’s Report and Support system. You can choose to do this anonymously or you can request to speak with an adviser. If you request to speak with an adviser, a member of the Advice Centre team will be in contact to talk through the options and support available to you.
Some of the circumstances in which reports are most often made include (but are not limited to):
Student Minds have a great resource to help you to help your friends. Take a look at their Look After Your Mate resource for practical tips and guidance. If you want to know how to use non discriminatory language when talking about mental health look at Language Matters from Teenmentalhealth.org
The information in the rest of this section is for RVC students and staff, we are here to offer support; letting the Advice Centre know about your concerns is perfectly normal.
You can contact a member of the Advice Centre team if you are concerned about a friend or would like support yourself - advice@rvc.ac.uk or 020 8051 3500.
Students and staff can also report any Mental Health concerns they have for self and others using the University’s Report and Support system. You can choose to do this anonymously or you can request to speak with an adviser. If you request to speak with an adviser, a member of the Advice Centre team will be in contact to talk through the options and support available to you.
Some of the circumstances in which reports are most often made include (but are not limited to):
- A student has stopped engaging meaningfully or completely with their study, and you believe that this may be due to health and wellbeing issues.
- A student has shared suicidal feelings with you and you need to ensure they receive the appropriate support
- A student’s behaviour is disrupting the learning process in class and you believe that this may be due to a health or wellbeing issue
- A student is showing signs of risky behaviour which may involve alcohol or drugs
- Significant change in presentation which is different from your previous experience of this person (e.g. appearing more unkempt, behaving differently)
What does the Advice Centre do when we receive a report
Depending on the concerns raised, we may do one or more of the following:
- Contact the student and offer support. We ordinarily rely on the student choosing to engage with support
- Contact the person who submitted the report to discuss their concerns and offer advice on how they can support the student
- Liaise with other support services within or outside of RVC who may already be supporting the student
- Liaise with appropriate members of the student’s personal support networks to help ensure the student receives support from those who are closest to them
- Support the student to access appropriate external services such as a GP, local crisis services or psychological and psychiatric services
- Where a student appears to be missing, work with RVC's Security team and the police to try to ensure the student is safe
You can find other useful information and resources on the Advice Centre Learn page