The Student Mental Health Project is an Office for Students (OfS) funded project that aims to help higher education providers develop their student mental health interventions. The project has developed a Student Mental Health Evidence Hub, a free resource consisting of an evidence-based toolkit, evaluation guidance, examples of practice and the results of our sector engagement and student panel work.

The project was led by The Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) as part of a consortium with What Works Wellbeing, SMaRteN, Student Minds and AMOSSHE, the Student Services Organisation.

Below are some questions that we could not answer in the launch itself due to time constraints.

If you have any further questions, please contact Dr Helen Lawson, Research Programmes Manager at helen.lawson@taso.org.uk or Tatjana Damjanovic, the Research Officer on this project at tatjana.damjanovic@taso.org.uk.

Contents

Question 1: Ethics 2

Question 2: Staff Wellbeing 2

Question 3: Professional Training 2

Question 4: Small and Specialist Organisations 2

Question 5: NHS partnership working 3

Question 6: Students who are seeking asylum 3

Question 1: Ethics

Is there any guidance on the ethics of Higher Education Providers (HEPs) running mental health interventions? I feel quite concerned about the risk of non-clinicians working in this area.

We currently do not have any additional guidance regarding the ethics of HEPs running mental health interventions. Our research has shown that there is a wide variety of clinical and non-clinical staff delivering student mental health interventions and it is difficult to provide broad guidelines for all types of interventions as ethical considerations vary depending on context.

However, we have offered guidance on adapting practice to your context that takes into account ethical considerations when developing interventions in a non-clinical context. You can find the guidance in the Evaluation Guidance section of the Hub, or by clicking here: https://taso.org.uk/adapting-practice-to-your-context/

Question 2: Staff Wellbeing

Will the hub contain examples of interventions/best practice in colleague [or staff] wellbeing that can then improve student mental health? How can this work support the goals of the mental health charter to address student and staff mental health?

The Evidence Hub does not currently contain evidence on staff wellbeing interventions because the selection criteria of our evidence review was limited to interventions that directly impacted students. We recognise that this is a growing area of concern and an important area where more research is needed.

Question 3: Professional Training

As part of this evidence hub, has any guidance has been developed around the professional training or skills that are required by individuals in order to deliver interventions themselves? (I.e., recognising what training should be in place to ensure that mental health support is provided in a safe and appropriate way).

Guidance on professional and accredited training has not been included in the Evidence Hub because more research is needed into the effectiveness of professional training programmes. Our research has shown that there is a wide variety of staff with a variety of training backgrounds who deliver mental health support and more research is needed to provide guidance on specific types of interventions.

Question 4: Small and Specialist Organisations

A lot of the frameworks, resources in this space can be quite difficult for small and specialist providers to adopt fully due to resources, capacity and different institutional contexts. I know the hub provides guidance on adapting practice to the HE sector – will this include guidance on adapting it to different types of institutions and institutional contexts, such as small and specialists?

You can find general guidance on adapting practice to your context in the Evaluation Guidance section of the Hub, or by clicking here: https://taso.org.uk/adapting-practice-to-your-context/

This does not specifically address adapting to a small and specialist context. Interventions from small and specialist organisations were included in our research in a limited capacity. We welcome examples of practice from small and specialist organisations to grow the research in this area. If you would like to submit an example of practice, please see our Examples of Practice submission form:  https://taso.org.uk/call-for-examples-of-practice-student-mental-health-interventions/

Question 5: NHS partnership working

Who provides the appropriate intervention for students at various thresholds, HE or NHS? Who carries the risk? What are the time delays in the system?

Risk management and triaging processes in partnerships between HEPs and the NHS vary depending on the specific contexts. To find out more, please see our Toolkit, in particular the further information and guidance section of intersystem collaboration interventions: https://taso.org.uk/intervention-smh/intersystem-collaboration/. There, you will find case studies from the Office for Students funded Student Mental Health Partnerships project where multi-disciplinary teams across several universities piloted programmes that addressed risk, data management and triaging issues. You will also find resources from the  South East Wales Mental Health Partnership project from which a Severity Index was developed to standardise the way student mental health is assessed and triaged.

Question 6: Students who are seeking asylum

Is there any research taking place regarding international students who are asylum seekers?

Our evidence review did not find any interventions that specifically targeted international students seeking asylum. More research is needed in a UK context to address this gap in the evidence. We welcome examples of practice to grow the research in this area. If you would like to submit an example of practice, please see our Examples of Practice submission form:  https://taso.org.uk/call-for-examples-of-practice-student-mental-health-interventions/