About the Mental Health and Wellbeing Service

In-person appointments are held at the Student Services Aston Webb Hub which is R7 on the Campus maps and directions (What3words: rocket.limbs.remedy)

You can find the Aston Webb Student Services Hub by:

Going through the main entrance to the Aston Webb building and turning to the left. You will see the following sign with an arrow pointing towards the Aston Webb Student Services Hub. 

You walk down the corridor and the entrance to the Student Services Aston Webb Hub will be on your right.

Alternatively, you can enter via the Brammall building and go through the doors just past the coffee shop. You will walk you the corridor and the entrance to the Student Services Aston Webb Hub will be on your left. 

The reception looks like this:

Please take a seat in reception and your Practitioner will come and collect you out of the double doors. They will call your first name (or preferred name if you have supplied one) You see photos of our Practitioners here: Meet the team (birmingham.ac.uk)

Your Practitioner will show down to our consultation rooms where you will have your appointments. We have several consultation rooms available, but they typically look like this

Available appointment times for online sessions

Online appointments are available from Monday to Friday between 8.30am (earliest appointment time) and 3.30pm (latest appointment time)

If you want online appointments which take place on an evening or weekend we may be able to accommodate these requests via Randstad or UBheard our partnership Counselling providers – please speak to your Practitioner if this is the case.

Please note your Practitioner will hold the Zoom meeting rom open for 10 minutes after your appointment start time – if you have not arrived by this time they will log off and you will need to email to arrange another appointment.

Online appointments conducted via Zoom

You will receive an email with details of your appointment and the Practitioner you have been allocated to work with. You see photos of our Practitioners here: Meet the team

You will have the Zoom details in the email. You do not need to download Zoom as you can just click on the link to join the meeting – but if you would like to download Zoom you can find out how here: Video conferencing 

We use the waiting room function on Zoom to ensure no one else can inadvertently join the meeting. Your Practitioner will let you into the meeting at the time of your appointment.

We do request that cameras are on for appointments otherwise it is very hard to assess risk or see what is going on for you.

You are not permitted to record the session in any form.

We must insist you are in a private space for your appointment – if it becomes apparent that you are in a public space or that here are other people in the room, we will end the session and we will be unable to replace this session. Your Practitioner may be working from home whist delivering online appointments but will ensure they have a confidential space for the session.

You will have received a core 34 form before each appointment which we ask you to fill out and you Practitioner will have the results of this prior to your session. This gives an indication of how you are feeling and if things are improving or getting worse for you. Your Practitioner may discuss some of your answers in sessions – you are welcome to ask for a copy of the record of the core scores from your sessions.

An appointment is scheduled for 50 minutes duration. Your Practitioner will schedule your next appointment either at the end of the session or by email shortly afterwards.

If possible, please turn your phone off or put it away from you and turn off all notifications on your computer so you can just concentrate on your session.

If a live session is disrupted due to technology issues our end, we will email a soon as possible afterwards to rearrange your appointment.

We can offer your ongoing sessions on a weekly or fortnightly basis – unfortunately we cannot space appointments out further than this as it begins to affect our ability to offer other students appointments. As a Service, we aim to offer short term focussed work rather than adhoc support – but if you prefer less structured support, there are several different services you can access this from in the University e.g Pause drop-in sessions , Wellbeing Officers, 24/7 Mental Health Support Line UBHeard and Talking Space - Birmingham Mind. You may like to explore if you are eligible for academic adjustments and a specialist mental health mentor to support you through your course by contacting Student Disability Service. 

As a confidential service we ensure:

• Your contact and information which you provide to the Mental Health & Wellbeing Service will be treated in confidence. Access to this information is limited to those staff who work within Student Wellbeing Services at the University of Birmingham and system administrators working on the behalf of Student Wellbeing Services. Information will only be disclosed to others without your consent where there is a legal requirement to do so, or where the University believes that there is a serious threat to your, or another person's, safety based on the information you disclose.
• Academic staff e.g lecturers do NOT not have access to any information about your contact with us, including the fact that you have made contact.
• We do not discuss your contact with us with family members, or anyone else who contacts us requesting information about you.

There are some situations where we would need to pass on personal information to someone outside of Student Wellbeing Services. These are:

• When we would be liable to civil or criminal court procedure if the information was not disclosed.
• If we believe that you, or a third party is in serious danger.

In these circumstances we would not normally break confidentiality without your consent, if at all possible, and only to the extent necessary in the circumstances.

Our record keeping is fully compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). 

Your notes are stored in compliance with Data Protection requirements and can only be accessed by staff who work in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Service. 

We will keep electronic notes about your contact with us for a period of seven years. After this period, notes are securely deleted from our systems and we can no longer access information about your contact with us. 

Under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) you have certain rights to access records held about you. If you wish to see your counselling records, please make a request in writing to the University's Legal Services: email legalservices@contacts.bham.ac.uk.