Students' Mental Health Needs: Problems and Responses

Kathryn James

Equity dictates that all should have the opportunity to succeed

(FEFC 1997)

In September 1993 Clarendon College (now part of New College Nottingham) set up the Mental Health Education Project and appointed a mental health guidance worker on a part-time basis to work closely with the Directorate of Rehabilitation and Community Care of Nottingham NHS Mental Health Care Trust. The purpose of the project was to see whether mental health service users could or would want to access further education.

The initial success of the project enabled us to extend the remit to include referrals of service users from the General Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Directorate, and later from the Addiction and Forensic Directorate. Referrals also came from the voluntary sector, user groups, homelessness and learning disability services. The guidance worker became full time and another part-time guidance worker was employed. By 1996, the project had become a support service within the college and was receiving approximately four referrals per week. It was providing learning opportunities, guidance and support to over 300 students each year who were referred from mental health services.

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