Counselling, Mental Health and Accessibility

The Student Counselling, Mental Health and Accessibility Service is comprised of four teams which provide practical and emotional support to students.

As a result of the evolving situation regarding Coronavirus (COVID-19) and following government guidance, the Student Counselling, Mental Health and Accessibility Service will be offering remote support for the foreseeable future. This support will take a different format to that offered previously; further information can be found below. If you are unsure which team would best support you, please email us.

Our service offers a safe place to talk about personal or academic matters that are troubling or distressing you. Our team have a lot of experience of working with a diverse range of students and we appreciate that the unique challenge of studying at university level may be made more difficult by recent world events. For more information about our teams and how we can support you, please see below. The university has lots of other services also here to support you during your studies, to find the one that best meets your needs, please see here. If you have questions about your course and/or assessments, please contact your course office.

Please note, our service is unable to provide support to students who have interrupted or been suspended or withdrawn from their studies. We do not provide mental health diagnosis, psychiatric or psychological treatment and are unable to provide letters for extenuating circumstances.

Student Counselling team

The Student Counselling team is now offering offer a confidential, 30 minute online consultation. This provides an opportunity to check-in with you, think about how you’re managing under the current circumstances and consider what resources are available to support you. To access this service please complete the following steps:

Complete the counselling pre-registration form which you’ll find on your eVision homepage
Once we’ve received this we will email you with further information about how to book an appointment

To use this service you must be a current student, living currently in the UK and registered with a UK GP. If you are not registered with a GP, please visit the NHS website for more information. We do not provide out of hours or crisis support, if you require mental health or urgent support, please see our list of crisis and emergency information and helpline services.

In addition to or as an alternative to this support, students can access 24/7 support through Big White Wall

Mental Health team

The Mental Health team offers confidential, practical support and guidance to students with a diagnosed mental health condition(s) and those referred by City Cares. Under the current circumstances, we are able to provide the following remotely:

Information about coming to City/transition planning
Recommendations for temporary reasonable adjustments
Guidance about internal and external support services and self-help
Advice about university processes e.g. extenuating circumstances and interruption of studies
Information about additional funding for home students
Information about additional funding international students
Access to support through Big White Wall, an online peer support and self-help platform. See here.

If you require reasonable adjustments such as exam arrangements, please complete the following steps:

Complete the mental health pre-registration form which you’ll find on your eVision homepage
Send us medical evidence confirming your diagnosis. Download the medical evidence requirements pdf
On receipt of the above, we will email you with details of any temporary adjustments we can offer

Please note: Temporary adjustments will only be in place until 31^st August 2020. Students who wish to extend their adjustments will need to contact us and attend an in person registration appointment prior to the start of the new academic year, on resumption of normal services. To complete registration with us and extend adjustments at that point, further medical evidence may be requested and there is no guarantee adjustments will be extended.

If you do not have a formal mental health diagnosis you can access the Student Counselling team‘s consultation service (above). To use these services you must be a current student, living in the UK and registered with a UK GP. If you are not registered with a GP, please visit the NHS website for more information. We do not provide out of hours or crisis support, if you require mental health or urgent support, please see our list of crisis and emergency information and helpline services.

Neurodiversity team

Our expert support tutors offer personalised, individual support, advice and reasonable adjustments to students with specific learning differences (SpLDs), including dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and ADHD. For more information, please see here.

Disability team

Our dedicated team of advisors offers support and advice to students with a long-term health condition(s), physical disability or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This may include recommendations for reasonable adjustments, liaison with other university departments and regular, individual appointments to help reduce barriers to learning and enable you to fulfill your potential. For more information, please see here.

Guidance about COVID-19 and studying at home

We understand that students may be worried about current news and circumstances and that studying and completing assessments at home may present challenges. There’s lots of useful advice available to support you to cope with feelings of stress and anxiety and take care of yourself during this period, as well as guidance to help you to study and manage your assessments at home including information about educational technologies, which you can find of our Moodle page.

If you have questions about your course and/or assessments, please contact your course office.

We know you may have questions about Extenuating Circumstances, we have updated our guidance and more information about this and other university processes can be found here: Guidance on Extenuating Circumstances

The Students’ Union can provide further information and support with these processes.

You can find the latest information about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and impact to university services on the Student Hub. If you have any other questions about the current situation please contact coronavirus-guidance@city.ac.uk

Urgent or out of hours support

The Student Counselling, Mental Health and Accessibility Service does not provide out of hours or crisis support. If you need urgent or out of hours support please see our list of crisis and emergency information and helpline services.

Confidentiality

All personal information that you share with the Student Counselling, Mental Health and Accessibility Service is considered sensitive under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), 2018. It will remain strictly confidential and will only be disclosed to relevant parties at your request and/or with your knowledge and consent.

Student Counselling, Mental Health and Accessibility Service staff attend external supervision and meetings of the City Multidisciplinary Team, similarly bound by confidentiality. The only exception arises where there is concern for the safety of individuals.

Further information on confidentiality can be found here.

Meet the teams

The service has a team of professionally trained and widely experienced counsellors, therapist and specialist mental health advisors. They are accustomed to helping people from many different backgrounds and cultures with a wide range of personal and academic concerns. Below you will find a list of our current staff members:

Midge Seymour-Roots - Head of Student Counselling and Mental Health Service
Hannah Abrahams - Senior Mental Health Advisor
Rachel Fahy - Mental Health Advisor
Barinder Lahli – Mental Health Advisor
Fiona Yaron-Fields - Student Counsellor
Lynne Mark - Student Counsellor
David Glyn - Group Counsellor
Sophie Greenfield - Student CBT Therapist
Colette Hagan - Student CBT Therapist
Neil Goldwasser - Neurodiversity Support Tutor
Emma Allsopp - Neurodiversity Support Tutor
Frances Anagnostou - Neurodiversity Support Tutor
Julia Pairman - Neurodiversity Support Tutor
Ellena Tibbitts - Disability Advisor
Lucy Clegg - Disability Advisor

Administrative Team

Jenny Aster - Service Administrator
Tiziana Tuveri - Service Administrator
Tim Curtain – Service Administrator
Yati Abd Razak - Service Administrator
Daniel Shannon-Hughes - Service Administrator
Ernestina Palm - Service Administrator