Mental Health and Wellbeing Support

Following registration with the team, you may be offered an assessment appointment*

Meeting with one of our mental health practitioners is about making a positive choice to get help from someone who is not involved in any aspect of your life. It offers you the chance to discuss your difficulties within a safe space. We will listen and offer support and understanding while simultaneously accepting your values, attitudes and lifestyle in a non-judgmental way. If you are allocated an appointment, our focus will be on developing your strengths, skills and resources to cope. We will co-produce a support plan with you during the assessment session.

Following an assessment appointment, we may recommend follow up or review sessions, attendance of psychoeducation workshops, referral to other services (within and/or external to the university), and some may access 1;1 support sessions with the MHW team.

Our contact with you is confidential except in rare circumstances – for example, when someone may be in serious danger. In these rare instances, we will seek to discuss any potential sharing of confidential information with you in advance (see our Student Agreement for more information).

We also acknowledge that for some students co-ordinated support from the university is something they benefit from, as such we may contact/ liaise with other key people who can support you whilst at university- but we will always seek your consent before doing so, and would not typically share confidential details unless you give us specific permission to do so. 

 *even if you are not offered an assessment appointment you will receive advice and guidance from the team

The University of Wolverhampton is an inclusive institution working to meet the individual needs of our students.

We offer reasonable adjustments to students who have a disability, Specific Learning Difference (SpLD) or long-term medical condition (including a mental health condition). These reasonable adjustments are designed to support you with your studies. 

To ensure you get the right support for your needs, we need you to complete a Self Declaration Form (SDF).

The SDF gives us more details about your specific support needs and allows us to build up your Tutor Awareness Sheet (TAS) which (with your permission) can inform your module leaders how you can best be supported on your course so please give as much information as you can. The SDF also contains our consent to share form. Without this, we cannot let your faculty know of your requirements, so please remember to sign the form! 

For more information about accessing reasonable adjustments you can email the Disability and Inclusion team- disability-inclusion@wlv.ac.uk (please include your student number)

Disabled Students’ Allowance

You may be eligible to receive additional support known as the Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA).

Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) is support to cover the study-related costs you have because of a mental health problem, long-term illness or any other disability; it can be on its own or in addition to any student finance you get. The type of support and how much you get depends on your individual needs - not your household income, but you will not need to pay it back.

DSA funding is available for eligible students and often covers the costs of specialist equipment, Non-Medical Helpers (NMH) such as a study skills tutor or a specialist mental health mentor and other disability-related costs associated with studying. 

Please check out the Government website for further details on eligibility and guidance of how to apply and any evidence you may require. The Disability and Inclusion team may also be able to help with your application- (disability-inclusion@wlv.ac.uk)

We offer a wide range of wellbeing events throughout the academic year for students to join, including our regular Wellbeing Day and Let's Talk sessions. 

In the coming weeks we will be launching our new psycho-educational workshops, which you can access without registering with the team- further details will be available on our website. 

Please also take a look at the Wellbeing Champions webpages for the latest activity, and keep an eye on the student news and events page for more student news. 

We provide a wide range of mental health-related self-help resources for our students, including leaflets, apps and our WLV Student Life Connect - University of Wolverhampton.

Find out more below. 

When supporting a student in distress, we operate a three-level response model:

1. Supported signposting: This is the appropriate course of action in most cases.
2. Seek advice: When a student is unable or unwilling to register with the Mental Health & Wellbeing team, but you still consider they need specialist support.
3. Imminent harm/emergency: When a student is at imminent risk of harming themselves – for example, stating that they have a plan to take their own life – or posing a serious threat to another person.

Read more on our Responding to a student is distress webpage. 

It is important to remember that your job, as the staff member who is aware of the student’s distress, is to determine which of the three levels is most appropriate and follow the guidelines for that level. 

In the vast majority of cases, level 1 is the appropriate response. The other two levels are there to cover more complex, more infrequent situations. Level 2 is for complex issues that may have some urgency but are not emergencies. Level 3 is for emergencies, which many staff may never encounter with a student.

If you are worried about a friend or family member, for example, your son or daughter, who is studying with us at the University, please encourage them to seek help and share with them this friendly link to our website: www.wlv.ac.uk/mhw 

You may also wish to view our Support to Study procedure here; Support to study - University of Wolverhampton (wlv.ac.uk)

Go to our Advice for a concerned parent, carer or friend webpage for further information.