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Today, we have published a couple of exclusive stories about the @AoC_help’s latest report on mental health in colleges.
Some of the statistics are really scary, but for many in colleges, the responses won’t be that surprising.
Today, we have published a couple of exclusive stories about the @AoC_help’s latest report on mental health in colleges.
Some of the statistics are really scary, but for many in colleges, the responses won’t be that surprising.
The statistic that sticks out the most is the one around suicide attempts. It’s heart-breaking and really highlights the importance of specific training on how to support students at risk – I know many brilliant colleges who already do this. http://tes.com/news/mental-health-94-colleges-report-suicide-attempts
The survey also reveals that the majority (85 per cent) of colleges in England are seeing a significant increase in the number of students with mental health difficulties without diagnosis – 83 per cent said they’ve seen an increase on last year.
Again, I don’t think this will be surprising given the past year – 90 per cent of colleges said that they thought the pandemic had had an impact.
BUT, it’s really great to see that 95 per cent of colleges have staff trained in mental health first aid, 99 per cent have a mental wellbeing focus in tutorials and two-thirds of colleges employ their own counselling staff.
The @AoC_help report included some really thorough recommendations on what more can be done to tackle this crisis. http://tes.com/news/colleges-student-mental-health-14-ways-tackle-crisis
They call on policy makers to specifically consider the FE context when investing in mental health, and to assess the impact that every policy will have on the mental health of staff and students.
They have some great recommendations for colleges – including signing up to the mental health charter and giving staff access to specific suicide training – and also some important ones for themselves.
I’ve reported on a lot on how colleges can help students at-risk of suicide, and it’s clear that a key problem is the lack of data specifically around the FE context. So I really applaud the @AoC_info for asking the question. I hope these recommendations come to fruition.
For anyone who is looking for guidance on how to support students at-risk of suicide, this piece we published in November pulls together some brilliant advice from mental health experts. https://www.tes.com/news/mental-health-suicide-support-students-risk
This may be of interest too – @NCFE, @BDLD_CIC, @weareLearnBox and @AELPUK came together last year to launch specific level 2, 3 and 4 qualifications in suicide awareness: http://tes.com/news/if-we-educate-people-suicide-we-will-save-lives
Sorry – * @AoC_info
