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Objective 4 seeks to establish close collaborative links between UCL, the NHS and other services to deliver integrated mental health care and improved risk management.
The development of closer links between UCL, the NHS and other specialist services to provide better co-ordination to student support and improved risk management is one of the recommendations of Universities UK’s ‘Step Change’ programme. The programme, which is also reinforced by government policy, encourages universities to reconfigure themselves as health-promoting and supportive environments.
In this respect, UCL offers an innovative proposition: trialling a transition from a support to a clinical care model for students experiencing mental health difficulties.
UCL researchers and therapists from Student Psychological and Counselling Services in Student Support and Wellbeing will develop and implement an integrated pathway, a stepped-care clinical model. The integrated pathway ensures more students receive evidence-based treatment in line with their needs and that they do so more quickly than is currently the case.
The new approach is strongly supported by UCL’s senior leadership.
Objective leads: Barry Keane (SSW) and Simon To (Students' Union UCL).
Action 4A
Involve expertise from across the UCL academic community, in particular within the Faculty of Brain Sciences, to inform and shape UCL’s approach to supporting and improving the mental health and wellbeing of students.
Action 4B
Adopt a new integrated care pathway to expand the range of therapeutic treatments at UCL. The model reflects the diverse treatment needs of the student population. It will be delivered jointly by Student Support and Wellbeing, Occupational Health and the Faculty of Brain Sciences at UCL, and NHS agencies.
Action 4C
Improve access to mental health care for all students and deliver treatment which is not easily accessible within the NHS; for instance, treatment for self-harm, borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, and alcohol and substance misuse.
Action 4D
Take proactive steps towards a ‘suicide-safer’ campus and develop a cohesive approach to student suicide prevention, response and postvention. Create an environment that encourages and provides opportunities for anyone affected by suicide to speak openly.
Action 4E
Ensure improved risk management by providing holistic and co-ordinated care to students identified as being at risk of suicide.
Action 4F
Provide appropriate and timely communications and offer support to those affected in the event of a student suicide.