University Mental Health Services

Supporting both students and faculties in Australian universities.

Supporting University Students and Staff

As exciting and educational as the overall experience is, university can be a tough time emotionally and mentally for many students and staff. While this has remained steady over the years, issues in student and staff mental health have recently increased due to COVID-19 and its effects on the education system.

The Wish Group has been working with universities for over 10 years and have created custom-built training and services in an effort to address the mental health struggles people face within universities. Working in collaboration with university counselling services, our services provide a seamless and appropriate approach to student services while also assisting staff.

How We Can Help

Residential Support

Our fully customised residential support includes an on-call, out of hours mental health professional for staff at residences. An experienced mental health professional will be available at the other end of a dedicated phone line, or the service can be delivered virtually. At agreed times, a dedicated team or individual will work with staff who have expressed concern over a student, looking at incident reports and working with existing counselling services to deliver the support needed. We can also work directly with students once they are referred to our team.

Exam Support

Exam support is designed to minimise student distress during university examination times. This service provided by mental health nurses can be delivered virtually or on campus, which allows us to support students all over the world. Our service is custom built with the university to fit into their processes. Our mental health nurses talk directly with students undertaking exams to ease stress. In addition to providing exam support emotionally, this service also offers basic medical and first aid services and can refer students to the medical team if required.

Student Conduct

Students going through misconduct hearings require additional support during these difficult times, and so our mental health nurses can be available on-site during and after hearings to engage them with what they need. We also provide support and debriefing services to staff that are involved in any student conduct matters.

Staff Support

When a student is experiencing distress, this can often affect their coursework and/or examinations. To achieve the best outcome possible for the student involved, our team will debrief with staff in any of these situations.

TRAINING​​

Our team takes each university’s specific needs into account to custom-build courses to best benefit its students. Designed to deal with common issues such as homesickness, self-care, resilience, setting into university, and alcohol and drug use, we have a range of specific mental health programs built around specific mental health concerns. These courses are tailored to the tertiary sector and range from one-hour webinars up to half-day courses.

Guided By The Australian University Mental Health Framework

The Australian University Mental Health Framework supports students and their overall wellbeing, and is structured through six principles. Universities are looking to this framework to assist in providing services throughout the country.
Mental health support aids in outcomes such as increased productivity, better physical health, and even an increased life expectancy. Without timely mental health support, distress can worsen and contribute to psychosocial disabilities, unemployment, and a reduction in life expectancy. As such, implementing this framework provides both short-term and long-term benefits.

We Bring Collaboration and Care

We integrate with existing university policies and services to ensure a seamless experience for students and staff. Routine is important from all sides and so we take all existing policies and services into account and tailor our support accordingly. Every member of our highly specialised team has experience in tertiary mental health support, and all meet the minimum experience requirements.

Why Invest in Mental Health?

Mental health issues affect nearly 1 in 5 Australians, and is rightly becoming a topic talked about more frequently and openly than in the past. This is a step in the right direction, as investing in mental health can provide multiple benefits throughout communities such as universities.

Increase Wellbeing

Student wellbeing is necessary for a university to function as optimally as possible. An increase in student wellbeing helps students to both feel and study better, which improves their university outcomes and helps them to find and enjoy meaningful work.

Enhance Student Experience

This increase in wellbeing assists to enhance the overall student experience. Students with improved mental health experience greater connections with their peers, and can form close bonds that last a lifetime.

Educate Your Faculty

Educating your faculty will improve the staff experience in addition to the student experience. A mentally healthy faculty and education regarding mental health can help staff to better assist students and their work.

Supporting You to Support Them

Our university mental health services work in tandem with policies already in place in order to provide seamless assistance. Students and staff alike can benefit from this framework that ensures mental health is addressed as the priority it needs to be.

Contact The Wish Group

University mental health services aim to enhance the student experience, improve student and staff wellbeing, and provide staff support and training to better assist students. At The Wish Group our experienced mental health staff provide a variety of services to universities including counselling, brief interventions, training, and master classes for staff. With current demand for counselling in universities at a high, we work with the university to deliver assistance and results to as many students and staff as possible.

To enquire about our university mental health services, please get in touch with our highly skilled and qualified team today.