This past week has been Schizophrenia Awareness Week, in which people have been encouraged to ‘stand up for schizophrenia’ to raise awareness and dispel myths and misconceptions about mental illness. This campaign also highlights the importance of spreading more understanding about mental illness in general. For students this is of particular consequence; life at university isn’t always a breeze and many suffer in silence from anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses which can leave people feeling ostracised and alone in an unfamiliar environment.
A recent NUS survey of 1,200 higher education students found that 92% of students identified as having had feelings of mental distress, which included feeling down, stressed and demotivated. 20% of those who were surveyed considered themselves to have a mental health problem with 13% admitting to having experienced suicidal thoughts. The main cause of mental distress among students was found to be academic study and financial difficulty. Speaking to various students, it’s also clear that university responses to mental health vary. Talking about Mental Health Day earlier this year, NUS Wales women’s officer Rhiannon Hedge said, ‘We need to recognise the role of education in mental health. The life change that a move to university brings is acknowledged as being one of the major shifts which can prompt mental health issues.’
Speaking to Her Campus, Sarah*, who has both ADHD and OCD, says, ‘I think there does need to be more awareness of mental health issues on campus because there are many people who believe having a psychiatric diagnosis means you’re crazy. I don’t really tell people about my conditions because I feel like people either won’t understand or might just look at me with pity or just think something is off with me.’ Lucy*, who suffers from schizophrenia, also agrees with this view, saying, ‘I most definitely think that there isn’t enough awareness of mental illness and it is considered a joke by many people and not a true illness.’
However, it now seems that a change may be on the horizon. In October of this year, the first ever NUS student mental health conference was held, supported by Mind and hosted by the Royal College of Nursing. Here students, university support services and mental health agencies met to discuss and address the issues facing young people in regard to mental health and wellbeing, making a commitment to better understand and strive to change negative attitudes about mental health in higher education and to improve mental health services in all higher education institutions. Hannah Paterson, Disabled Students’ Officer, said ‘Having a conversation about mental health starts with conversations about the issues and problems faced, but it’s important to move on to solutions. That’s what our conference was about – being the conversation and starting the change by looking at government policy, services and funding.’
It’s clear that more needs to be done about combating the ignorance that has gathered around the issues of mental health and it’s equally important that students can both recognise the signs of mental illness and have the capacity to seek easily available help from university services whilst away from home. With the NUS making a stand with their conference, it’s hoped that their strives both have a positive impact on attitudes and services and encourage others to talk about issues openly and release the stigma that has been attached to mental health for far too long.
*Names have been changed to maintain confidentiality.
For any help or advice about these topics you can contact the University Counselling Service http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/counselling/index.aspx
or Nightline, the confidential listening service http://www.nottinghamnightline.co.uk/#.
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