When your mental health begins to seriously affect your day-to-day life and it becomes a struggle to function as you normally would, it’s really important that you seek support from the right places. The University of Birmingham has a wide variety of services available to help you through this, and there is also a significant amount of support available through your GP and the wider Birmingham community.
Wellbeing Officer
Each School has their own or Wellbeing Officer(s), who are able to provide practical and emotional support for you if you are experiencing personal challenges, particularly when these might interfere with your academic work. They can recommend sources of professional help and, if appropriate, will guide you through the extenuating circumstances process.
Click here to find out how and when you can contact your school's Wellbeing Officer(s).
Please note that Wellbeing Officers are contactable via email for information at this time.
Check-in Service
The check-in service is run by the University of Birmingham’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Service, and is available to all students at the University, regardless of whether or not you have used any of our support services previously. The 30 minute slots provide you with the opportunity to talk to one of our psychological practitioners about your personal concerns, and to find out more about the further support and resources available to help you get the most out of your time at university.
The check-in service is suspended due to restricted campus opening.
Pause Drop-In
The new Pause drop-in service is a comfortable, safe and open space on campus for mental health support, exclusively for University of Birmingham students. Based on Forward Thinking Birmingham’s own Pause service, you can drop in, no appointment needed, to access specialist support from their friendly team of qualified therapists and volunteers.
Find out more about Pause@UoB
GP (Doctor)
When struggling with your mental health, your GP can offer you support, guidance and professional help, just as they would with your physical health. Although this might feel intimidating, your doctor is there to help find you the best support, whether that might be different treatment options or a referral onto another professional service. It also gives you a chance to open up about how you’ve been feeling, and ask any questions you may have.
If you’d like further advice about speaking to your GP about your mental health, please click here to see Mind’s advice on finding the right words to do so. Click here to find out more about registering with a GP in Birmingham.
Student Disability Service
If you’ve received a formal diagnosis from your doctor, then the Student Disability Service can offer you further support throughout your time at the University of Birmingham. This may involve developing an individual Reasonable Adjustments Plan, to ensure that you’re able to fully access teaching, learning, exams and other assessments.
Due to restricted campus opening, the Student Disability Service are unable to offer face-to-face appointments at this time, but will be working remotely to respond to disability-related queries by email.
Groups
Throughout the year, we offer a variety of group support sessions that run as a series over several weeks. All groups are run by experienced counsellors, and will help you explore the specific and serious challenges you’re facing, understand how they affect you, and think about strategies for managing them throughout your time as a student.
Click here for full details of how to register for groups.
Personalised Support
If you’re struggling with your mental health to a serious extent, you may feel that you need to access personalised support from our specialist Mental Health and Wellbeing Team. Personalised support comes in many different forms, but all will offer you a safe and confidential space in which to explore the difficulties you may be facing and develop effective strategies to overcome them.
After registering for personalised support, your first session will be an assessment of your situation with one of our friendly counsellors or psychological practitioners, looking into your current challenges, and then deciding on the best course of support. This might involve continuing in one-to-one support, or it may include other avenues such as workshops and groups, or external services such as your GP (Doctor) might also be recomended. If you’re studying abroad, on placement, or have certain accessibility needs, then online support is also available and can be an excellent option for support.
Personalised support registrations are now reopen remotely: We have been working to safely reopen our Mental Health & Wellbeing services following closure as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic and, we are pleased to inform you we are now able to offer remote email and Skype services for both counselling and wellbeing support for Birmingham based students.
To register for Mental Health & Wellbeing remote services, and for any further updates on our services over the summer period, please visit our personalised support page.