Students with mental health issues

As many as one in four students is likely to experience some form of mental health issue during their studies. This might be a temporary reaction to a painful event, or a longer-term or ongoing condition that effects resilience and ability to cope with challenges.

No matter what your situation, whether long-term or short-term, let us know so that we can support you.

Our dedicated Disability and Dyslexia team have services in place to support students with mental health difficulties including:

  • depression
  • anxiety disorders (including panic disorders, OCD and PTSD)
  • bi-polar disorder
  • schizophrenia and psychosis
  • drug and alcohol problems
  • and eating disorders.

Ask us a question – we are here to help

FAQs

Key things to do when you apply

You can tell us about mental health conditions or issues at any time. The sooner we know the better we will be able to support you.

If you indicate in your application that you have a long-term or ongoing mental health condition, we will contact you to discuss your needs when you are offered a place.

To qualify for ongoing support, your condition must have lasted for, or be likely to last for, a year or more and it must have a significant effect on your ability to carry out daily tasks such as attending seminars and lectures, memory and concentration.

If you have mental health issues you will need to provide evidence of this from your doctor or psychiatrist to access support.

If you do not want to provide this information in your application, please contact us in confidence so that we can make sure you get the support you need.

Support from a Learning Support Coordinator can be provided confidentially.

I really wish I had confided in those around me when I first began my studies, and would encourage all students to let it be known as soon as possible if they are struggling. Help is out there.

Rebecca Gibbs, Primary Education with QTS (3–7 years) BA(Hons)

What support is available?

You will have a Learning Support Coordinator who will be available throughout your course to help you and your department. They will:

  • work with you to explore what impact your disability might have within the context of your academic course so that support can be tailored to your needs.
  • issue a Learning Support Plan (LSP) to outline any adjustments required for your teaching or assessment methods (e.g. extra time)
  • offer advice and support when applying for Disabled Students' Allowance or other disability-related funding
  • help to set up support such as specialist mentoring, study skills tuition, assistive technology training and sign language interpreting
  • provide disability support advice to ease the transition to student life, signposting to other university services where appropriate.

Counselling service

We take the mental wellbeing of our students very seriously and have support services available to help you adapt and cope with life at university.

Our confidential counselling service is available to all our students to help deal with stress, feelings of isolation, anxiety or bereavement, for example.

What financial support is available?

For UK (home) students

If you are a UK (home) student, you could be eligible to apply for Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs) to help you pay for extra costs incurred on your course as a result of your disability.

The DSAs can help to pay for things such as travel, a note-taker or reader, study skills help, specialist equipment and other course-related costs. The support you are eligible to receive depends on your disability and not on your household income.

If you receive specialist equipment (e.g. a laptop, software etc) through DSAs, you will be required to pay the first £200 of this cost, but the university's DSA Reimbursement Fund can assist students whose household income is £25,000pa or less.

The application process for DSAs can take four or five months so it is important that you apply as soon as possible.

See the gov.uk website for more information on DSAs.

Healthcare courses

The application process for most healthcare courses is through Student Finance England, as above. However, there are a number of exceptions, where students should instead apply for the NHS Bursary Disabled Students Allowance. This works in a similar manner to the regular DSA but acts as a separate scheme. The courses that follow the NHS Bursary route are:

  • Medical students in your 4th year and 5th year (if you intercalated) or 5th year (if you didn't intercalate)
  • Social Work MSc students

If you are unsure which route to follow, please contact our team and we will try to help.

For students from other countries

If you are not from the UK you will not be eligible to receive the Disabled Students’ Allowances. However, we will do everything we can to support you and help you find funding to pay for equipment and support workers.

To help with this process, please investigate the following options before starting at Brighton:

  • If you have a sponsor, ask if they can contribute money to cover disability-related expenses. Some scholarships offer funding to cover such costs.
  • You may be eligible for a grant from your own government, so contact your education department to ask what support they can provide. We know that the Eire, Jersey and Guernsey, Sweden, Netherlands, and Thailand governments provide support, though others may also.
  • Finally, you may be eligible for support from non-governmental organisations in your home country.