Support and Intervention

Pillar of our strategy

Spanning a continuum of whole-population awareness and signposting, self-help and early intervention, through to focused support and intervention if mental health and wellbeing difficulties arise, to include crisis and safeguarding intervention.   

 

Support and Intervention - Pillar of our strategy

Our Student Support and Wellbeing team is here for all students who may be experiencing mental health and wellbeing difficulties. We provide free, confidential and non-judgmental support and access to online resources.

  • The University aims to foster an inclusive and supportive environment for students with a wide range of needs and different abilities. The Disability and Inclusion Advisory Team is based within the Student Support and Wellbeing Centre (Alan Turing Building room 001). The team’s role is to provide advice on how students can access and fully participate in their studies.
  • The University of Wolverhampton takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of any member of the University community, as well as to work together with other agencies to ensure that adequate arrangements are in place to identify, assess, and support any member of the University community who may be suffering from abuse, harm or neglect, or who is at risk of being drawn into terrorism and being radicalised. 

The team is responsible for interpreting disability legislation (i.e. Equality Act 2010) and liaising with students, academic staff, faculty enabling tutors (FET), service departments and internal and external partners ensuring that all services are accessible. The Adviser is able to provide a confidential, personalised service to students throughout their academic life, including advice concerning funding, non-medical helper support, accommodation, equipment, specialist software, examinations and assessments.

Advice regarding reasonable adjustments for individual students is disseminated to relevant departments in the form of a tutor awareness sheet (TAS).  A university wide e-learning module on reasonable adjustments will be made available in 2022.

  • The Dennis Turner Hardship Fund can be accessed* by any students, home or international, who are struggling to make ends meet. The fund is not classed as public money and does not affect the visa status of international students. These hardship funds are non-repayable, and can provide a short-term solution to students in this position. 

  • Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Team aims to offer students the service(s) most appropriate to their individual needs, these can include:

1:1 short-term counselling or mental health practitioner support

Referral to online or other self-help resources

Group work – which may be therapeutic or skills-based group work

Onward signposting and referrals 

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Team sits within the Student Support and Wellbeing services. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Team is comprised of six practitioners and the team manager. It is a multi-disciplinary team of different specialist practitioners within the team, ranging from a mental health nurse to counsellors and including a social worker. The service operates between 9-5pm Monday to Friday. 

The work undertaken by the team includes mental health triage, assessment, brief and longer-term therapeutic support, internal and external referral and follow-up – including with, and for, students presenting high levels of distress   or in crisis.  There is daily screening of referrals by the Practitioners who then allocate students and respond to cases in which a student needs to see a practitioner from the team urgently. Practitioners provide one to one support through a time limited service which includes an initial assessment and where it is deemed appropriate offer up to a further sessions of interventions if required.

A key part of the service is collaborating with other key University services and Faculty teams, making and receiving effective referrals to ensure that the support students receive from the wider University is properly coordinated. There are also follow-ups with internal and external stakeholders following serious student incidents to ensure such case are properly coordinated across the University.  Other teams, including security, accommodation and faculty teams, may also work in tandem with the service seeking clear and effective guidance on how to respond effectively to complex cases.

  • Togetherall
  • Community - Share thoughts, get creative and receive support. The community is safe, anonymous, and monitored 24/7 by trained professionals (wall guides).
  • Courses - Work through a selection of courses relevant to you, with professional support on hand.
  • Resources - Complete tests, access tools and content, and receive helpful techniques to help manage your mental health.

As part of the mental health offer of support for students the University has access to an online digital platform to which staff and students can access and discuss their wellbeing and concerns. The Support Network is the baseline service of Togetherall, providing 24/7 access to safe, anonymous online support mediated by counsellors 365 days a year. Members can make use of a range of art and writing therapies, psycho-educational materials, self-assessment tools, groups, and peer support.

Togetherall offers the following;

  • WLV Gym offer a free 3-month WLV Gym pass for students with a self-declared mental health issues, following a referral from Mental Health and Wellbeing colleagues who as part of their overall assessment and support plan, feel physical activity might help a student. 
  • The Psychology Community Research Clinic (PCRC) is a community-based clinic offering psychological support to students and staff of the University of Wolverhampton, free of charge. The staff leading the PCRC are BPS-chartered and HCPC-registered psychologists, experienced in helping those in need. Some clinic staff are in training to become counselling psychologists. The team is managed and professional supervision is provided by HCPC-registered counselling psychologists. The Psychology Community Research Clinic (PCRC) is a clinical research project in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton. The project is owned by the School of Psychology, and is run by the senior clinical staff. All activities are reviewed by the leadership team of the Centre for Psychological Research and the CPRC remains separate from other support services in the university (such as SSW). The role of the CPRC is to learn more about psychological therapies and human wellbeing through offering psychological support for those who might need help with an emotional or psychological concern. The PCRC includes therapies for anxiety, depression, low mood, public speaking anxiety, and more. The PCRC operates ongoing individual or group sessions, workshops and single session consultations. Students and staff can self-refer though an online booking system. To manage the workload of staff, sessions are currently available online, and face-to-face on designated “clinic days” where staff have availability and supervision from the clinical lead is on hand. There is no limit on the number of sessions a client can access as the needs of the client are taken into account.

 

  • Our duties in relation to providing adjustments and support for disability and inclusive teaching and learning will also be further developed. We will review and look to improve the provision of our Tutor Awareness Sheet content, and the possible medicalised threshold through which they are available to students

  • A comprehensive suite of policy documents will be developed and published following on from this Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and will include:

- Student support

- Support to study

- Trusted person notification

- Clinical supervision

  • A comprehensive Mental Health and Wellbeing Handbook will be created to outline all procedures in place across the SSW department. This handbook will be appropriately owned, shared with the appropriate team members and subject to annual review and approval.
  • We will review the various points of contact in which students can disclose mental health and wellbeing difficulties and consider information sharing arrangements across the University to ensure students who disclose difficulties or are showing poor engagement are supported early, and so that students do not have to make these connections on their own.

The University recognises the additional challenges which may be faced by care leavers (those who have been in care for 3 months or more around their 16th birthday) and estranged students (those aged 18-25 who have no communicative relationship with either living biological parent) and offers a wide range of support for these students. The University has a single point of contact for any student who identifies at enrolment, or during their studies, that they fall into one of these categories.

Students are asked to complete a registration and consent form which gives permission (or not) for our SPoC to speak to colleagues on behalf of the student, where this is in the student’s best interests.  This includes the Funding Team, Accommodation, Academic Coach/Personal Tutor, Careers, etc.

Additional support includes:

  • Financial (an access bursary paid through the Student Loans Company) and an additional bursary paid through the Dennis Turner Hardship Fund each year.
  • Accommodation – 52-week licence in University-owned accommodation, assistance with deposit where needed.
  • Priority access to Mental Health and Wellbeing once a student has completed the registration form
  • Dedicated careers support

For more information please see our dedicated web page dedicated web page