World Mental Health Day 10th October 2015

Every year the WHO leads a day of awareness on mental health related topics, and the theme this year is ‘Dignity in Mental Health’.
The aim is to campaign against discrimination and marginalisation, as well as stigmatisation, and to educate people as to what can be done to preserve the dignity of those with mental health conditions.
Here at Students’ Health Service we are proud to have recently been awarded a grading of ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for our care of students with mental health conditions.
The whole team has worked really hard over the years to create a safe and welcoming environment for students who are struggling with emotional and psychological health conditions, and we have built up a solid network of services within the practice, which will support our students through their academic careers.
We provide a weekly visiting psychiatrist clinic, in-house Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (psychological support) for a variety of conditions, self hypnosis for anxiety, eating disorders referrals to a specialised local clinic, and we are soon to have our own team psychotherapist, to support our students with the most complex mental health needs.
We really believe that mental health is as important as physical health, and we will see a person with a mental health crisis for an appointment the same day, as we would see a person with chest pain, or difficulty breathing.
We work closely with the Student Counselling Service, and liaise with them, with patient consent, if it will help improve the student’s care.
We want our students to know that if they are worried about their mental health they can book an appointment to see a GP, and we will be non-judgmental, supportive and caring, will listen to their worries and discuss the situation, and we will do our best to help move things forwards, including liaising with academic departments, if requested by the student.
Don’t suffer in silence. Please talk to us.

The following links may also be of interst on World Mental Health day 2015.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/world-mental-health-day/2015/en/
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/world-mental-health-day/world-mental-health-day-2015/
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/get-involved/as-a-fundraiser/teaandtalk/