Cambridge University’s mental health services have been branded “ineffective”, “untargeted” and “unsustainable” in a draft BBC report.
Five Cambridge students have died since March, one confirmed as a suicide and four suspected suicides.
Before the deaths, a review of the university’s psychiatric services found there were “probably significant inefficiencies”.
The university said it had “embarked on a significant program of change.”
It is not known if the deceased students had used the university’s psychiatric services.
The BBC has also been contacted by about a dozen current and former students with experience in these services whose concerns include the “eligibility for college” procedure that can be initiated after someone has attempted suicide.
The students said that none of the panels of the trial, which will decide their future studies, is a mental health specialist, with one student explaining they “felt like trial hearings, like I was in court talking about things with complete strangers , which I hadn’t properly unpacked with a therapist yet”.
One former student said her overall experience of mental health support left her with the impression that “as far as the college goes, if I were to die, they didn’t want it to be on their property.”
“It seemed that no steps were taken to actually take care of me. The steps taken were to protect the college’s reputation and its liability should anything happen,” she said.
- If you are feeling emotionally distressed, you can get help and support through BBC Action Line
Natalie Acton, head of student well-being, told the BBC the university commissioned a “strategic review” of mental health delivery “because we really wanted to be sure that what we were doing was the best thing.” we can do for our students”.
A September draft final report by external reviewer SUMS Consulting found that the “current approach is uncoordinated and there is no clarity on the purpose or definition of the university’s role, goals or boundaries in its support of student mental health and well-being are”.
His findings included:
- Increasing staff and student dissatisfaction with the system, “evidenced by the results of several reviews over the past few years, including this one”
- The lack of both a university-wide suicide prevention and response strategy and a central after-hours crisis response service were “urgent” areas highlighted in previous reviews
- The lack of a crisis service “poses a significant risk to the university, including an increased incidence of student suicides and near misses”.
- ‘Insufficient’ data collection and information sharing, with support being ‘delivered in silos’
The university spends £4.5million a year on mental health services and the review found it was “one of the largest spenders in support of student mental health and well-being in the industry”.
“The costs are high and will continue to rise without a clear plan given the projected continued rise in mental health problems among young people and the resulting increase in student demand for support,” the draft report said.
The review found that there were “wide disparities” in support among the university’s 31 colleges and that “senior tutors, tutors and other college staff with a welfare function are overburdened, dealing with often significant problems and a high level of demands and… deal with risks”.
One student told the BBC that while he felt supported by his own college, “it’s just not fair that it was available to me when it wasn’t available to other students at other colleges in the same university”.
If students contact university counseling themselves, they will be seen for up to four sessions and then either be dismissed, referred to group therapy, or encouraged to use a charity fund for longer-term therapy.
“However, this is ineffective, as many students ‘jump back’ to UCS (33%) or (anecdotally) switch between different sources of supply offered at the college university,” states the review.
The review concluded that there had to be a “less expensive alternative to simply providing one-on-one counseling to students,” either through UCS or through internal college delivery.
“This current approach is ineffective and given the projected increase in support needs and corresponding cost growth (and the need for some cost containment), ineffective and unsustainable.
“This current approach does not distinguish between different student needs, is not goal-oriented and is not sustainable.”
In response to the findings of the review, Ms Acton told the BBC: “We have seen an unprecedented increase in the number of students coming to Cambridge with mental health problems and the number using our services once they have arrived here , and we really encourage students to come forward.
“We now have a significant reform program in colleges and universities to make sure we’re doing all we can, but it’s a journey. It’s a journey in which our students are very involved and we constantly consult with our students about it.”
As a result of the review, she said they wanted to “ensure that there is a minimum base of support for each student to access.”
“In colleges, everyone will have an academic who can support them in terms of their well-being, but they will also have a health practitioner who can work with them to prevent mental health issues from becoming difficult,” she said.
Ms Acton added that they are developing training for staff across the university, have a “much stronger relationship” with the local NHS and will have an after-hours support line from October so staff supporting students in crisis can connect with professionals can take up for mental health.
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