NHS mental health workers to be permanently based at Cardiff Uni’s Centre for Student Life

In order to tackle the current mental health crisis that is affecting the student population, NHS mental health nurses will be permanently based at Cardiff University’s Centre for Student Life.

The scheme comes after Cardiff University announced that in one year there was a 30 per cent increase in requests for support from the university’s wellbeing services.

The service which will be known as the Mental Health University Liaison Service (MHULS) will be accessible for students from all universities covered by the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, which include those at Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, the University of South Wales and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Students will be seen within 10 days of a referral, either from their GP or the NHS Adult Psychiatry service.

This scheme is a first for Wales with it being officially started on the 21^st June. However, some students took part in this service as part of a pilot scheme and, on average, 30 students a month were being seen by the nurses as part of the programme.

Ben Lewis, Cardiff University’s Director of Student Support and Wellbeing praised the scheme by saying that it is “already saving lives” and is getting students the help that they need. Mr Lewis also continued by saying that the Mental Health University Liaison Service is helping people to not slip through the gaps and is helping students to avoid long NHS waiting times.

The new support provided will include completing safety plans, doing detailed mental health assessments for students, completing reviews and referring those that need it to other services.

Those that wish to see the nurses will have to meet certain criteria such as suffering from suicidal thoughts, experiencing trauma, having had self-harmed or having been diagnosed with a mental health condition.

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