Information for staff

Training sessions delivered by Mental Health Advisors 

Our team are always happy to support academic staff to maximise their effectiveness in working with students on an individual basis or through provision of training.

You may be interested in 'Mental Health Awareness for Staff Dealing with Students', which runs on a regular basis throughout the academic year. Please check i-Trent for upcoming dates and to book your place. 

Drop-in sessions

We actively encourage staff to refer students to our no prior appointment drop-in session.

Please also feel free to accompany your student to the drop-in if you feel this would make it more accessible for them.

Student Support Meetings

Stage 3 

If you are calling a stage 3 meeting related to a student’s mental health, please ensure we are invited – we make it a priority to attend these meetings. 

To enable us to attend the meetings with the most up-to-date information, we ideally need to see the student in the week leading up to the meeting (if we have not already seen them recently). Please bear this in mind when arranging the meetings. If we are unable to attend the meeting and the student is known to us, we will submit a report in advance.

Stage 2

Mental Health Advisors do not routinely attend Stage 2 meetings; however, please alert us that they are happening so we can log them on the student record and make a case-by-case decision.

When arranging meetings, please email studentservices@plymouth.ac.uk. 

If we see or hear about a student who appears to be struggling with their mental health and we assess them to be at risk or their mental health is having an impact on their academic work, we will contact you to request a meeting.

Our role within Student Support meetings is to share information, give a professional mental health perspective and be part of the discussion and decision-making process.

Confidentiality

Under normal circumstances, everything said within sessions remains confidential to Student Wellbeing Services. We don't normally inform staff about the attendance or progress of a student's mental health sessions and would communicate only if requested to do so by the student concerned.

In exceptional circumstances, the service may not be able to offer this level of confidentiality. This might be where we consider someone to be at risk of serious harm to themself or others. Read more about confidentiality and data protection.

Extenuating circumstances

Please do not refer students to our service simply for a letter in support of extenuating circumstances. Academic staff are able to provide corroboration and may be in a better position to do so if the student's situation is known to them.