Student Mental Health & Suicide Awareness Ambassadors
Category: Community issues
Voting closed
Suicide is the biggest killer of young people under that age of 35 in UK.
As a psychology student, I am passionate at helping others and believe that everyone should have someone to talk to in their time of need.
For many university is the first time away from home and can be a stressful and frightening experience. This may be due to mental health issues, exam stress, isolation and many other issues.
I would like to see students trained on mental health and suicide prevention available on the phone to talk, messaged or social media interface for students to access during none busy hours for Sunny House.
All student ambassadors would be trained and the helpline would be manned from 5pm-9am Monday-Friday and 24 a day over the weekend. This would cover the times students do not have access to mental health services provided by Sunny Hill House.
All call would be confidential and ambassadors could sign post to services or with permission pass information to Sunny Hill House for a referral or follow up call.
No one should feel they have have no one to talk to or feel they are not listened too.
Mental health in students is a big issue and support and practical advice can really help if you are suffering from thoughts of suicide.
Comments
I think this is a brilliant idea and is very much needed. Sometimes just having someone to talk to can be a very big help. x
Thank you Katherine, really hoping we can get this in place xx
Hi Laurna, this is an amazing idea, and it looks like we've been thinking along the same lines! I'm one of the candidates running for Vice President of Arts & Creative Industries, and one of my manifesto promises is to work with the Nightline charity to set up a Middlesex branch. You can find out more about the service they run across the country here: https://nightline.org.uk/ If I'm successful, I plan to set up an evening hotline for MDX students who need advice, support or just someone to talk to! Nightline help with training students, facilitating and managing the procedures and policies, and it is completely confidential and run by students! I'm so glad to see that you, and all those who've voted for this policy already, have your priorities all sorted and know how important a service like this is. Hopefully I'll be able to help in bringing this to students soon!