About the team

Student Wellbeing offer the opportunity to talk with a practitioner in a supportive setting about anything that is affecting your emotional and psychological wellbeing. The practitioner will not tell you what to think, feel or do in relation to your situation. But they may suggest information that might be helpful for you, or who else or which service might be helpful for other support, if needed.  However, the emphasis will be on offering you non-judgmental support and trying to understand, with you, what you are experiencing. We hope that through the practitioners support, you will be able to develop your own answers and ways of managing or overcoming your difficulties, enabling you to focus on your studies and enjoy your time here at University of Staffordshire.

If you feel uncertain about the suitability of our service, we encourage you to contact us as we may be able to help. We know that each person's mental wellbeing difficulty can affect them in different ways so the support we offer is flexible and tailored to each individual.

Once you have submitted the form we will contact you to arrange an appointment.  We aim to respond to forms submitted to our Student Wellbeing service within two working days (not including weekends) during term-time, and within five working days (not including weekends) out of term-time.

To enable students to access and use our support most effectively, we offer a one-at-a-time model of support to most students who contact us.  This approach means each appointment will be a standalone appointment – with the option to arrange further appointments during the academic year.  A single appointment may be sufficient in itself (many students find that one appointment is enough).  But you can book another appointment with our team if you feel you need to at any stage.  This gives time to reflect on what was discussed and to try out any suggestions or other options of information and support before making another appointment.  We can also offer follow on support where appropriate.  In addition, we can signpost or refer you to NHS or other community services, particularly where specialist or longer-term support is needed.

Please note, the Student Wellbeing and Safeguarding Team currently provides appointments by phone, video call or face to face.  If you are unable to have the appointment by phone or video call and require a face to face appointment, please let us know when we contact you to arrange an appointment. Evening appointments are provided for those on full week placements or students who have other commitments in office hours. Evening appointments will be online or phone only.  

When opting for online or a phone appointment, try to be in a safe and private space where you can feel comfortable to talk for the duration of the appointment.

We encourage you to think about the issue(s) that you would most like to focus on in your appointment, as hopefully this will help you to make the best use of the time during the appointment.

If you are going to have the appointment via Microsoft Teams, close down other applications or programmes on your device so that you’re not interrupted by these.

If we have any difficulty trying to contact you via Microsoft Teams due to technical difficulties, or lose the connection with you during the appointment, we will attempt to call you by phone and/or email you to let you know.  Please do contact the Student Wellbeing team by email at studentwellbeing@staffs.ac.uk or by phoning 01782 294976 if you have not heard from us 10 minutes or more after your scheduled appointment date/time.

We will not record the appointment and we ask that you also do not record the appointment.  (There is no record function within Microsoft Teams for a video call between two people – the record function is only available for meetings of more than two people).

You may find it helpful having your appointment by phone or video call, as some people find it easier to talk when they are not physically in the same room and face to face with the Wellbeing Practitioner.  However, some possible difficulties you may find are:

• It may feel strange or uncomfortable not having the same ‘cues’ that arise during a face-to-face meeting, such as facial expressions, body posture, tone of voice, etc., as these may simply not be visible or are much less clear.  This may make it harder for you to communicate exactly what you mean or perhaps to interpret what the other person means or is trying to convey.
• You may find yourself talking about things that you wouldn’t usually have discussed in a face-to-face meeting, as it feels different not being there in person and sometimes less inhibiting.  You may feel this is a good thing, if it helps you talk about something that you might otherwise have not been able to say but wanted to.  But it might also leave you feeling uncomfortable, either during or after the appointment, so this is something to consider for yourself.
• You will be responsible for trying to ensure there are no interruptions during the appointment at your end of the call, something that you wouldn’t have had to worry about if you were attending a face-to-face meeting.

Please feel free to discuss any of these issues or other concerns during the appointment if you wish to.

If you have recently had an appointment with one of our practitioners and want to arrange another appointment, please complete the online form again (there is a shorter version if you have completed it within the last 3 months – follow the guidance in the form).  If you have any difficulties filling out the form or have any queries, please get in touch with us by telephone on 01782 294976 or by emailing student-wellbeing@staffs.ac.uk.

We can help you in a variety of different ways.

• Psycho-education to support your learning and understanding of your own mental health and wellbeing.
• Anxiety and stress response work
• Cognitive behavioural interventions
• Solution focussed therapy
• Problem solving
• Positive behaviour change & motivational interviewing
• Safety planning 
• Help you to access external services by referral, providing information, advocacy and support.
• Assist you to liaise with specialist agencies.
• Provide a safe listening space to talk through anything concerning you.   

Our service operates in compliance with the University's Data Protection Code of practice and Student Privacy Statement.

We have a staff team of professionally trained and qualified practitioners who are used to working with students experiencing a wide variety of difficulties. However, there will be some instances where support from us will not be appropriate or may not be helpful. In such instances we can signpost you to, and sometimes liaise with, other external professionals and organisations.

Please note that practitioners are not medically qualified and therefore cannot provide a medical diagnosis nor prescribe medication – you would need to see your GP for this. If you are not yet registered locally, please see our health pages https://www.staffs.ac.uk/students/support/student-health-services

In order to maintain and develop professional and ethical standards, all of our practitioners are registered with a professional body and adhere to their respective ethical standards.

We hope that any student will feel able to access us and that no student will feel excluded from doing so in relation to their ethnic or cultural background, gender, age, social class, religious belief, physical ability, sexual orientation, etc. If you do experience any barriers to accessing us we would encourage you to get in touch and send us your feedback.

Any information that we produce is available in alternative formats on request. Please ask a member of our admin team or one of our practitioners if you would like something produced in a different format.

Our practitioners are usually able to provide a supporting statement for Exceptional Circumstances if you have been or are coming for appointments during the period that you feel your studies have been affected. But we cannot usually provide a statement if this is not the case, and suggest you contact the Student Experience Team for advice on who might be able to provide a supporting statement for your claim, if this is needed.

If you would like to access our service and arrange an appointment, please see our home page https://www.staffs.ac.uk/students/support/student-wellbeing-and-safeguarding https://www.staffs.ac.uk/students/support/student-wellbeing-and-safeguarding  . 

If you have any difficulties filling out the form or have any queries you can get in touch with us by telephone on 01782 294976 or by emailing student-wellbeing@staffs.ac.uk.

If you are seeking support outside our opening hours see Emergency and 24-hour Support.

If you are a Staffordshire University student studying at a Partner institution and wish to access counselling, you will need to do this at the institution where you are studying. For a list of Partner institutions, please see UK Partnerships and International Partnerships.

We are open Monday to Thursday, 8.45am – 5pm & Fridays, 8.45am - 4.30pm, except for public holidays. We can also offer limited evening appointments where your course demands mean you are not available within these office hours. 

You may also be interested or feel it more appropriate to engage with the following services as well as/or instead of us;

• A GP (General Practitioner), can assess and diagnose many common Mental Health Conditions, they can also consider prescription of medication, for surgeries close to your home address check - Find a GP - NHS (www.nhs.uk). If you are at our Stoke Campus we have a campus GP provided by Harley Street you can register with them here -
• Many areas of the country have access to a local IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies), offering therapeutic interventions to help a person in managing various mental health conditions in Stoke we have Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Wellbeing Service) who accept self-referrals, but you must be registered with a local GP. For IAPT Services outside of Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent see - Find an NHS psychological therapies service (IAPT).
• If you are struggling with feelings of loneliness do, consider talking to the Students Union to find out what is going on and of various clubs and societies The Students' Union.
• Student Support and Experience – course related difficulties can impact on wellbeing and if your main concern is related to your course the Student Support and Experience Team may be able to support you.
• Student Inclusion – if you have a diagnosed mental, physical or learning support need and you are looking for adjustments to study please contact the Student Inclusion Team.

Our team of practitioners are here to support any student experiencing mental wellbeing difficulties.  All students who feel they may benefit from our service can use it. If you are experiencing feelings of being overwhelmed, problems are piling up or you have a personal difficulty that you are struggling to cope with, the wellbeing service can help support you.

If you would like to leave us some feedback, either annonymously or with a view to discussing your comments/ideas further, then please fill in our Student Wellbeing feedback form it would be great to hear from you.