Universities told to reach out to stop suicides

Universities are urged to contact key family members, carers or friends if they have serious concerns about a student’s mental health — even without their permission.

According to the new guidelines, students should register a “trustworthy contact” when they start their studies.

Universities UK (UUK) said his advice, which he shared with BBC News, was aimed at preventing student suicides.

Relatives of bereaved families say universities need to implement their policies.

The law allows organizations to share personal information in an emergency, and the guidelines state that most universities already have a system in place to reach out to next of kin in such situations, even without the student’s consent.

However, this is the first time all universities have been asked to reach out to loved ones if they have concerns.

Theo Brennan-Hulme, who suffered from Asperger’s syndrome and self-injured, killed himself in March 2019 while studying at the University of East Anglia.

He has given UEA permission to contact his mother about concerns, his friend and flatmate Callum Dineen, 22, told BBC News, but this has not happened.

“He has contacted the university, he has followed all the guidance on how to help his mental health and he has followed all the processes as best he can,” Mr Dineen told BBC News.

“They could have done better. They could have done much better.”

The UUK’s guidance aims to make the rules clearer so universities have more confidence in when to act, which Dineen says would have made a difference.

“UEA had that policy and they didn’t use it well or at all,” he said, adding the university has since improved its services and policies.

The UEA said it had not commented on individual cases but welcomed the focus on information sharing, adding it had put in place a policy asking students for their prior consent to contact loved ones.

UUK’s guidance states that staff should “make all reasonable efforts to seek consent” but “there are some circumstances where a university can and should share information with emergency services and trusted contacts even if they do not seek consent.” could”.

It also calls on universities to:

According to official estimates, 64 students took their own lives in England and Wales in the 2019/20 academic year.

As of 2016, the suicide rate among students in England and Wales is significantly lower than in the general population of a similar age. Suicide rates are generally higher in men than in women.

But student quotas are only estimates, leading some parents to call for legislation for universities to report the annual number of student suicides.

James Murray was not warned about his son Ben’s deteriorating mental health while he was at Bristol University. Ben killed himself in May 2018.

“Why on earth wasn’t I called? Maybe there was something I could have done,” James told BBC News.

He wants universities to have a legal “duty of care” towards students when it comes to their mental health.

“This is not about interfering parents. The overarching goal is to prevent future deaths within the student community,” he said.

UUK President and University of the West of England Vice-Chancellor Prof Steve West said universities have a duty of care when it comes to health and safety and equality and diversity.

But he said: “There is no legal framework for universities to do this, e.g [their] students, in terms of mental health.”

Since Ben’s death, the University of Bristol has implemented an “opt-in” scheme which is now used at around 30 universities, including the UEA.

In addition to being able to contact a student’s next of kin in an emergency, the university is asking students for “prior consent” that it can share information about their well-being with their contacts if they have concerns.

The university said it had learned from Ben’s death and that politicians had responded “positively”. In 2021-22 contacts were involved 98 times.

When asked why UUK isn’t asking all universities to have “opt-in” programs, Prof West said: “The students who don’t enroll are often the students most at risk.”

UUK counseling is not compulsory and universities cannot oblige students to give ‘trusted contacts’.

But Prof West said those who did not follow it as best practice would “lose” status under the university’s mental health charter.

UUK has also published a checklist to help universities support students with internships, with the help of Izzy de George, whose brother Harrison killed himself in December 2020 while he was studying at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) to find teachers to become.

Ms De George welcomed the phrase ‘trusted contacts’, which could mean friends or flatmates, and told BBC News contacting some pupils’ parents could be ‘almost the worst thing you can do’.

She will continue her campaign, she said, because “suicides are preventable,” adding, “If I can just stop one suicide, that’s basically what keeps me going.”

MMU said it “re-emphasised the importance of communication between internship providers and the university when there are concerns about well-being or attendance” following Harrison’s death.

The National Union of Students welcomed UUK’s guidance but said universities must ensure the guidance does not deter those “who are already less likely to disclose a mental health condition,” such as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender students and loved ones ethnic minorities

The British Association for Counseling and Psychotherapy said it was “a positive step that universities are proposing consistent practice for the first time” but feared “this could be a risk management tick-box exercise for some institutions”.

“What we really need is more investment in support services,” it said.

The Department for Education said it expects all universities to be “actively engaged in suicide prevention” and has asked for £15million to be dedicated to student mental health.

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