“The most rewarding thing about our work is seeing students grow in confidence and self-assuredness.”
Senior Student Mental Health Advisor Iain Boyd and Advisors Danielle Peiris and Joe McCoy work to support students with ongoing complex mental health issues. These can include symptoms including depression or anxiety, or conditions such as psychosis, bipolar or eating disorders.
The team offers ongoing support to students over multiple sessions, enabling the team to really get to know their students and build strong therapeutic relationships. They can also support students to navigate other support systems, such as GPs and the NHS, to enable them to get the help they need.
Creating a space to talk and removing stigma
Iain says that it’s important to create a space where students can come and talk about their mental health, somewhere they can set goals of things they want to talk about or achieve.
Danielle added: “The main goal is to take away any stigma they think might present itself because they have a mental health condition. For other students, I think it can also be a discovery of what their strengths are. Students can gain a level of acceptance within themselves and that starts to permeate with the people around them.”
Joe also explained how the team can help students understand a new diagnosis: “GPs don’t have a lot of time to go through symptoms. We can break it down and make it a bit more manageable and hopefully not as scary.”
Empowering students to grow
Iain says that one of the best parts of working in the team is the strong ongoing relationships advisors can build with students. “You can really get to know students and see their journey through Imperial. It is lovely seeing students graduate and achieve success, particularly if they’ve previously been unsure if they will be able to manage.
“It’s important to remind students that just because they have an ongoing mental health condition, it doesn’t mean they can’t thrive on their course.”
Danielle added: “The most rewarding thing about our work is seeing students grow in confidence and self-assuredness.”
New ideas
Danielle enjoys the varied nature of her role and says that she relishes being able to develop specialist knowledge in neurodiversity, so she can better support neurodiverse students. This can include helping them understand their condition and how they can seek further help from GPs or the university’s Disability Advisory Service.
Iain and Joe have both joined Imperial from the NHS and other mental health services and say that they appreciate being able to spend time getting to know students. Joe added: “You get more time with students to expand on issues that they may be experiencing, and hopefully you’ll get to see progress with them.”
Iain noted that Imperial students have a receptiveness to new ideas and changing patterns of thinking. He said: “Students’ time at Imperial is a formative time in their life,
Mental health support at Imperial
Students can get access to wellbeing support through the Student Support Zone. More specific support and advice on mental health is available from the Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service.
Support for staff is available via the Staff health and wellbeing webpages.