SWWHEP Mentoring Scheme

The disability inclusion and discrimination agenda has significantly developed over the past decade and now encompasses a broad range of disabilities, including mental health. Recent Disability Equality legislation established a strong set of statutory obligations on public sector bodies in respect of all equal opportunity groups. Such developments are welcomed; they do however present a particular set of challenges with respect to the roles and responsibilities of HEIs and NHS Mental Health Services which are often under-resourced and as such only able to support those with more severe and acute mental health difficulties.

Mental health remains a largely hidden disability with very few students declaring at application compared to the upper estimate of between 6% and 10% of students who experience a significant mental health difficulty during their period of study.

The project will provide for the gradual, timely and organic growth of a professional, robust and dedicated mentoring scheme in each of the three institutions. It will recruit a pool (target number 6) of mental health mentors who will be available to each HEI on a needs basis. This approach will ensure that the scheme in each HEI can be fully integrated with the different configurations of Student Services and with individual staff roles and functions.

The HEIs will collaborate on recruitment, induction and ongoing annual training and development, information resources and documentation and forms. The mentors will receive external supervision and will meet on a regular basis to provide peer support.