Here’s why Notts’ suicide prevention week is more important than ever

This week the Student Union has taken a huge step to acknowledge the mental health of students both in Nottingham and throughout the UK.

In a campaign spearheaded by current Welfare Officer Zoe Mackenzie and incumbent officer Myles Smith, the Student Union are raising awareness by campaigning on mental health and student suicide awareness.

By highlighting the fact that 98 students last year lost their lives to suicide, Zoe and Myles have brilliantly shown that student suicide and mental health is a way bigger and way more important issue than many of us thought to be.

It is extremely important for us to see what is happening around us. Everyone can struggle, both mentally and physically; some people get help and some are unable to.

The first step to truly highlighting student suicide as an issue that we NEED to confront is to sign up to the petition created by Zoe to ask the University to do more to prevent student suicides

Petition

This petition asks the University of Nottingham to:

– Recognise World Suicide Prevention Day annually.

– Introduce suicide awareness training for all student facing staff.

– Introduce an opt in system where students emergency contact would be contacted if staff have a welfare concern.

– Increasing funding for the counselling service in line with demand and increasing student numbers.

– Conduct an annual audit which includes student feedback to assess the effectiveness of the University Welfare provision.

We want our university to understand how important counselling can be to help someone with the right amount of funding and access for more students to seek help.

The concealing services should not just be there when someone is on the edge, it should be available for everyone who needs someone to talk to about issues they have been struggling with.

Effective welfare support

The next step of suicide prevention at Nottingham follows seeking the right help for all the students by introducing suicide awareness in the university where the students and the staff will go through suicide awareness training.

This training, if only cursory and only touching the surface level, will be something that will help people deal with obstacles when they are on the verge to give up.

Feedback of welfare provision

At last, it is extremely important for students to reach out and give their feedbacks about the effectiveness of the welfare provision. Student's mental health cannot be neglected anymore. It is okay to feel a certain way and there is always a way out of things.

By signing the petition, we can make sure that every individual is heard at the University and where every life matters.

The University will be holding a 95 second silence outside Portland Building tomorrow at 12pm to commemorate the terrible loss of 95 student lives last year. By attending this event, we can show that we are more resilient in beating this issue.