Hey everyone, I'm Rebecca,
a second year student
adult nurse here at the University of Nottingham.
Normally you can find me on YouTube
@RebeccaB where I talk all things nursing and University.
But today I'm going to be talking to
you about managing your mental health at university.
Quick disclaimer before we start this video.
Although I am a student nurse,
I'm not a student mental health nurse.
I'm an adult. I'm also not a registered nurse.
I am not a registered health care professional.
So I'm going to be talking about this
from my personal experiences and
the experiences of my friends, rather
than a professional perspective.
I'm going to go over a few of the frequently asked questions
we get about managing mental health
here at the University of Nottingham.
The first question is,
'Can I continue counselling and meds from my home GP at uni?'
So if you're like me,
although I live in Nottingham during term time,
my permanent home is in Mansfield
which is about 40 minutes away.
So I am still a patient at my home GP.
I go to there for all of my appointments.
If you do not live as close to Nottingham as I do,
there is a healthcare centre on
University Park Campus called Cripps Health Centre.
And they have designed that with a holistic approach.
Holistic means that you see the person as a whole.
So not just a physical illness,
but also for mental health as well,
and also religion and stuff like that.
So not only do they have amazing facilities
for physical health, such as a minor operations suite,
they also have amazing facilities for mental health as well.
Including mental health suites that have been specifically
designed to be used for that purpose.
Second question is,
'How can I access the help if I need to while I'm at university?
So the best thing to do is either
speak to the Student Services or speak to
your personal tutor. I went to my personal tutor when
I was finally brave enough to
be able to say something that I was
struggling. And he was the one who
put me in contact with the Welfare team.
I had a meeting with a lovely lady from the Welfare team.
It was about 40 to 50 minutes long.
She gave me a lot of coping strategies on
how I could cope myself at home.
She also asked if I wanted to access the Counselling service.
At that time I declined because I wasn't ready.
I didn't want to access that service.
But that is the Counselling service
available if you feel like you need it.
If you are thinking now that you're coming to university,
and you do your counselling at home
and you don't live close enough to your home GP
and you'd like to continue it here,
then please tell your personal tutor
or anybody in the first couple of
weeks just so they can get you on
a waiting list as it can be a little bit long.
So make sure that you are on that waiting list as soon as you can,
but please find someone that you can
speak to while you are on that waiting list.
The third question is,
'Am I going to be the only one managing my mental health?'
And the answer is absolutely not.
Nearly everybody is going to be managing their mental health in some sort of way.
Whether it's a long-term
condition that they've been diagnosed with
for a while or whether it's stress related to work.
Everyone is going to be having issues with their mental health
while being at university. So the best thing for you to do is
is to speak to others about it
if you feel comfortable enough to.
And build a support network around
you so that you can get the help that you need.
Forth and final question I'm going to be talking about today
is, 'How am I going to cope without my family?'
So university can be quite stressful.
I was 18 when I moved to University and
moving away from my family for the first time was very scary.
So I just wanted tell you,
everyone is in the same boat pretty much,
especially if you're moving into halls.
It's probably going to be the first time that
everybody has moved away from their family.
So definitely speak to them
about it. The only way that you're going
to be able to get through it is if you make that good support network
at university and speak
to others about how you're struggling.
Also, my peer mentor gave me some really good advice.
Make some time for your family. I know at university
you want to be having fun going out, freshers
week and there's a lot
of new work that you are going to be doing.
You're trying to get used to
the difference between school and university.
And it's going to take up a lot of your time,
but please make time for your family.
Technology is amazing these days,
give them a call or
Facetime every once in a while and
have a time dedicated to when
you're going to go home to visit your family.
You will appreciate it in the end,
and your family will definitely appreciate it too.
It will also give you something to look
forward to if you're feeling homesick.
Okay, so that's all from me at the moment
about managing your mental health at University.
The main thing that I want you to takeaway from this video is
please do not suffer in silence. Because I was brave enough,
and I spoke to my personal tutor and I got help that I needed.
I am doing a lot better than I was.
So please please do not be
afraid to tell somebody that you're struggling.
Here at the University of Nottingham,
we are a massive community and we want to help each other,
but we might not know that you need
help if you don't tell somebody.
We are so excited for you to be joining our community
and we will see you soon.