There may be times when SU Officers have contact from students who are in distress, or in need of crisis support. It can be difficult to know what is helpful for, or available to you and others, when presented with a crisis. The following information may help SU Officers navigate such times, with an emphasis on minding your own wellbeing during such challenging times.
The welfare and wellbeing of SU Officers is always paramount.
As an SU Officer you should be mindful of your personal capacity to support others in challenging or traumatic situations. As a ‘helper’, it is important to tend to your own mental health needs in the first instance. For example if you are personally impacted by a student in distress, you should seek support and guidance for yourself as a priority, focus on your own self-care, and step away from things if you need to.
Getting support from others:
Campus Supports
Best practice is that you as an SU Officer should work collaboratively with campus supports (for example, counselling services, chaplaincy, health service, student support service, etc) as much as possible to support students in distress. You should familiarise yourself with all the different support options and offerings across your particular campus and locally. It may help to create a list of these that you can consult and/or hand to students directly.
USI
USI representatives, namely the Vice-President for Welfare, the relevant Regional Officer, and the Mental Health Programme Manager are available in the following ways:
If an SU Officer is presented with a case of a student in distress, we would ask that the SU Officer assess the distress level on a scale of 1-4, where 1 is no risk and 4 is high risk of danger to self or others.
The named USI representatives can be contacted should the SU Officer need advice/ help in dealing with the case of distress as it is ongoing, and can be contacted to ask for further advice/ get support once the case has been dealt with.
On a regular basis, preferably monthly, we would ask that SU Officers report how many cases at level 3 or 4 of the scale they are dealing with. This is to allow us to be aware of those campuses that may need extra support or help in, for example, working to gain better supports for students. It also allows us to create a picture of the level of student distress that we can bring to organisations to ask for more help for SUs and for students, and it allows us to be aware of the level of distress that SU Officers are being asked to hold space for, so that we can best support SUs in doing so. Please note that details of cases are not required when reporting in this manner, just an idea of how many cases is sufficient.
In circumstances where distress is not limited to one student for whatever reason, and where SUs are in favour, USI representatives can reach out to mental health support services on campus to offer any possible support, as well as connecting SU officers with representatives from relevant NGOs
The USI Mental Health Programme Manager is connected to many other organisations who work in mental health promotion and suicide prevention at national levels. They are also connected with the HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention. By engaging with USI representatives, other opportunities to engage with local or national mental health services, initiatives and services may arise.
Signposting
We have collated contact information from multiple organisations that can provide help in different formats. These sources of help can be used to signpost to help for students, or if you are struggling in any way yourself. The information is available here
Helpful Information:
It can be helpful to take time out to increase your own awareness and understanding of suicide, self-harm, and supporting others.
Training:
Information on upcoming trainings can be found here.
Trusted web content on supporting others- Supporting someone who might be suicidal – HSE yourmentalhealth.ie
- What to say to someone going through a tough time – HSE yourmentalhealth.ie
- Worried about someone else’s mental health – HSE yourmentalhealth.ie
- Mental health – tips on being a good listener – HSE yourmentalhealth.ie
- If you are worried about someone else – Samaritans Ireland
- Take action to help prevent suicide – Spunout.ie
- How to talk to a friend who is feeling suicidal – Spunout.ie
- Supporting someone who feels suicidal – supporting yourself – Mind UK
- A range of booklets on suicide prevention, self-harm and suicide bereavement – HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention
- Responding to a person in suicidal distress – a guidance document – HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention
For information on how to access help for yourself or someone else, please see the following links:
Suicide bereavement support and information
- https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/mental-health-services/nosp/suicide-bereavement-liaison-officers/.
- You are not alone – the national suicide bereavement support guide – HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention
- HUGG, Healing Untold Grief Groups – information, telephone support and local peer support groups led by volunteers with lived experience.
- bereavement supports and resources – HSE yourmentalhealth.ie
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