# Mental Health Nurses

**Source**: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/wss/students/mental-health-nurses/
**Parent**: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/wss/

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## **Mental Health Nurses**

The university recognises the importance of providing resources and support for student’s mental health and overall wellbeing.

Within the Student Health and Wellbeing Service (SHAWS) is a small team of Mental Health Nurses who provide specialist assessment and support for student mental health needs. This is to ensure that students with significant mental health needs or those experiencing a mental health crisis, are assisted to gain access to appropriate National Health Service (NHS) care within the local area, or indeed within the home area. This may also involve seeing the Mental Health Nurses on a short-term basis to support in managing your mental health.

The Mental Health Nurses are accessed via **referral** from one of the wider professionals within Wellbeing. This may be following a Brief Consultation, a therapy appointment, or a Disability appointment. The team may also reach out to you should your NHS care team or hospital contact us.

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### How can we help?

We should all be mindful of our mental wellbeing and look to ensure we take time to consider our own needs. In times of transition and change, such as starting university, this is even more important, though so easily forgotten amongst all the other competing demands for our time and attention.

#### **New starters**

University is often a time when you may wish to ‘move on’ ‘go it alone’ ‘see how things go’ – this is all perfectly natural. However, if you have experienced mental health difficulties and/or have a current diagnosis, it is worth taking some time for you to consider your needs and keep your mental wellbeing a priority.

Seeking support in the early stage helps to maintain your successful and healthy time at university and helps to inform you of the available support should you need it.

How we can help

How we can help

We offer appointments to assist with your transition to Warwick, during which we:

- look to explore existing support,
- any changes to your current strategies/crisis plan,
- as well as work with you to consider any further Wellbeing support or referrals onto local services.

This can take place over one or two appointments as soon as you commence university, to ensure that you know who we are and how to access us should you need.

Linking with your GP is very important. **Upon starting university,** **we recommended** **registering with the Campus Surgery**. It is also worth having an appointment with them just to let them know about your past and current needs. You may find it beneficial to make this contact with the GP **prior** to needing them for a more urgent appointment, as it could help you feel more comfortable with the process.

If you have been advised that your care from a previous mental health service is being transferred locally, it is important to mention this in your first appointment with a GP. Your GP would be able to follow this up on your behalf and hopefully prevent undue delays in receiving continued support.

#### **Support for significant mental health needs or crisis**

Should you start to experience difficulties with your mental health while you are at university or have a relapse of any previous mental health issues, we can support in many ways.

This includes offering **assessments** of your current needs and **short-term interventions** (relating to management strategies, wellness planning, managing self-harm, and treatment changes etc.).

Discover more ways we can help

Discover more ways we can help

While we are not a replacement for the NHS (National Healthcare Service), we can also assist in:

- helping you navigate it,
- refer you on to the appropriate support,
- or aid communication with your GP.

Whilst our aim is to support your time at university, **we can also assist should you find yourself in the position of needing to take a break from university**.

We can **support you in appropriate discussions** with your department and /or link with services you could access if you return home.

We also look to **support students returning after time away** to ensure you have all the necessary support in place to aid a successful return to study.

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### About our services

#### **Confidentiality**

Our services within Student Health and Wellbeing Services (SHAWS) are confidential, which means that the information you share with us is kept securely and will not be shared with any third parties unless you explicitly wish for us to do so. There are some circumstances, in which staff may have to pass on personal information, including if there is a concern of serious risk/harm, or if we are required to do so by law, but we will discuss this with you and ask for your consent wherever possible.

To ensure you are offered the most appropriate support, there may be times when we request to share information about your individual support needs with internal and external parties. This, for example, maybe your GP, or NHS team. We will ask for your permission to do this. In addition, we may ask you to give consent to your GP or health care providers to liaise with us.

Your information is securely held by Student Health and Wellbeing Services (SHAWS) and will be treated confidentially and appropriately for the purposes of carrying out the ongoing business of Wellbeing Support Services under the terms of the 1998 Data Protection Act and the University’s Data Protection Policy. Records are destroyed following the academic year in which a student finishes their registration with the institution + 6 years.

[Learn about our confidentiality policy](https://warwick.ac.uk/services/wss/about/confidentiality)

### Additional resources

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#### **Who do we work with?**

Wellbeing Support Services are available to **all** home and international students.

All home students have access to NHS services.

International students also have access to NHS services as prescribed by the health surcharge paid as part of your visa application.

#### **External support**

- **GP’s General Practitioners** – Key to looking after your overall health during your time at University. The [campus surgeryLink opens in a new window](https://www.uwhc.org.uk/) offers a range of services.
- **Urgent/Crisis Access for mental health** – This is now accessed via calling Tel **111** and for mental health needs **Option 2**.
- **Accident & Emergency Departments** are located at:

**UCHW** – Clifford Bridge Road, Coventry CV2 2DX

**Warwick Hospital** - Lakin Road, Warwick, Warwickshire, CV34 5BW

Other support services

Other support services

- [Wellbeing for WarwickshireLink opens in a new window](https://wellbeingforwarwickshire.org.uk/)
- [Recovery and Wellbeing AcademyLink opens in a new window](https://www.recoveryandwellbeing.co.uk/Courses)
- [KoothLink opens in a new window](https://www.kooth.com/)
- [Every Mind MattersLink opens in a new window](https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/)

Details of further university-based and external support can be found on the [Wellbeing and Student Support website](https://warwick.ac.uk/services/wss/).