Universities UK (UUK) has published a report that calls on unis to be more proactive in student suicide prevention, including recommendations to “involve trusted contacts”.
UUK has said universities across the UK need to have “clearer policies” on how and when they should involve family, carers and trusted friends when there is considered to be a serious risk to the welfare of a student.
In response to this UUK has today, October 6, published a set of recommendations, alongside PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide.
Recommendations for student suicide prevention
The new guidance sets out how and when universities should involve families, carers and trusted others when there are serious concerns about the safety or mental health of a student.
The recommendations include:
- Making it mandatory for students to give a trusted contact at registration, being clear that the contact does not have to be a parent, and starting a conversation about when and how these contacts might be involved
- Having check-ins at the start of each academic year for students to update this information and making it easy to update the contact if circumstances change
- Ensuring that universities review their suicide prevention plans and policies to keep students safe, identifying students of concern, assessing risk, working in close partnership with NHS services and, where there are serious concerns, initiating conversations about involving trusted contacts
- Making clear that, although always preferable to gain agreement from the student, where there are serious concerns about a student’s safety or mental health, universities can decide to involve trusted contacts without agreement. Such decisions should always be made in the student’s interests, be taken by appropriately qualified staff, supported by senior leadership, be based on a risk assessment establishing the grounds for serious concern and be properly governed and recorded.
Calls for unis to be more proactive
This guidance is the first time a consistent practice has been proposed for the sector. It places the student at the centre of decisions about their safety and care.
Professor Steve West CBE, President of Universities UK and Vice-Chancellor of UWE Bristol, said the sector needs to do “everything we can to reduce the risk of suicide” adding “Universities can help save lives when they adopt a proactive response to suicide prevention”.
He said: ‘There is nothing more devastating for a university community than a student death by suicide. As a sector, we need to do everything we can to reduce the risk of suicide and serious self-harm.
‘Universities are committed to putting students who may be in difficulty at the centre of decisions about their care – including who they want involved. But this commitment must be balanced with a duty to protect a student when there are serious concerns about their safety and welfare.
‘Universities can help save lives when they adopt a proactive response to suicide prevention, and an important part of that proactive response is making proportionate, risk-based decisions around involving trusted contacts’