Easing student stress

摘要

It is often assumed that university life brings with it an increase in personal and social networks, better prospects of securing employment after graduation and, because of this, better mental health than the rest of the general population. Some may suggest that the three or four years spent at university are the best years of your life, but the reality for some students could not be further from the truth. Survey data repeatedly demonstrates that, on average, students are less happy and more anxious than non-students (Brown, 2016). In 2015 the National Union of Students, on behalf of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Students (2015), surveyed 1093 students in further and higher education. The survey revealed that 8 out of 10 (78%) said they had experienced mental health issues in the past year. And 33% (a third of the respondents) said they had experienced suicidal thoughts; among those students who did not identify as heterosexual, the figure was even higher, at 55%. More than half (54%) of those respondents who reported having experienced mental health problems said they did not seek support. A third said they would not know where to go to get mental health support from their university if they had needed it, and 40% stated that they would be nervous concerning the support they would receive from their institution.