Counselling and Wellbeing Annual Report 2017

1) Referrals to the service a) Waiting times: Two additional staff joined us in the spring (welcome Wendy

Jones and Claudia Kempinska-Hill who joined after the above photo was taken!) This has meant that we can reduce our waiting times to start counselling from 4-5 weeks at busiest times to 2-3 weeks following a Single Point of Access (SPA) appointment. There is now a 3 week target which has been met since March. We also welcomed four new volunteers – Fatima Adam, Sunny Chohan, Donna Liburd and Jilna Surani.

b) Demand: Now SPA has started we have needed a new definition of a referral for counselling so we can measure wait times and numbers coming to the service. One of the purposes of SPA is to establish the most helpful support to meet student needs (which may or may not be counselling). If counselling is recommended on a SPA action plan, students are then told how to apply. So a referral is the receipt of an application for counselling post SPA.

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Number of students offered an initial counselling appointment following a SPA referral (01/07 to 30/06 of each year).

2015/16 8622016/17 646 (77% of the above)

Notes

1) 2015/16 was a peak year. The 2016/17 figure represents a return to previous years. There is a correlation with the introduction of SPA, but could be an indicator of the success of SPA. Students who could most benefit from counselling are referred and other support options are recommended for some students who may not need a counselling intervention. Whatever the reason, it is helpful in both reducing wait times and enabling the team to increase its engagement in whole population approaches (projects, workshops etc.) in conjunction with other SAAS welfare teams. At a time of ever increasing demand for counselling across the sector, this is very helpful in terms of managing resources.

2) The figures show that roughly 75% of the applications were from female students (similar to previous years). We also use an ‘Other’ category for students who prefer to use this rather than define themselves as male or female.

3) Of these there were 219 BAME students (just over a third) 418 white and 9 not known/information refused.

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2) Impact of counselling on academic outcomes

The CIAO measure (Clinical Impact on Academic Outcomes) looks at retention, achievement and the student experience at the start and end of counselling. In total 290 students completed both a pre and a post measure. A slighly higher number (n=313) also completed additional questions about counselling at the end of the sessions.

What you hope to see is

a) a green (post) bar that is higher in one or both of the first two categories (Not at all and Only occasionally) so more students are able to just get on with university life! This is pretty much the case as shown.

b) A green bar that is lower for the last three categories (Sometimes, Often and Most of the time) which shows that negative impacts have been reduced.

Retention

72.5% of students considered counselling to have helped them to stay at university. Improvement may be due to several factors, but counselling encourages students to take positive actions including seeking more support from others (tutors, friends etc). A more detailed breakdown shows the importance of counselling interventions to students and the university.

11.5% (n= 36) answered counselling was ‘The most significant factor’ in helping them stay. 42.8% (n=134) answered counselling was ‘An important factor’ 18.2% (n=57 students) answered counselling was ‘One of many factors’.

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Achievement

75% considered counselling to have helped them do better in their academic work.

Experience

87% considered counselling to have improved their overall experience of being at university.

Finally

● 82% said counselling improved their skills that will help them with future life and employment.

● 81% said counselling helped to improve their self-esteem.

● 87% said it helped feel more positive about their future.

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3) 2017 evaluation survey

This is the 5th year we have carried out this survey (using ‘Survey Monkey’). It was sent to all students who had at least one session of counselling between October 16 and April 17. It is sent out around 2 months after completion of counselling and it provides very informative and honest feedback from students.

This year 256 students were contacted and asked to complete and 37% (96 students) actually did. This is 99 less than last year and reflects the lower number of referrals this year. Of note is the fact that 38 students choose not to open the email invite and consideration need to be given to see if more encouragement can be given in the future.

Some key stats

▪ 49% (n=47) found out about us through the website. This was by far the highest percentage/most common way of students coming to know about us.

▪ 85% (n=82) were seen within 4 weeks. 12% (n=12) waited 4-8 weeks. The most common reason for delays is when students provide limited availability for various reasons, but nevertheless it is higher than it should be. 77% (n=74) found the wait to be acceptable.

The main presenting issues were Anxiety 89% (n=85), Low self-esteem 83% (n=80), Depression 76% (n=73) and Loneliness 67% (n=64). There has been an increase in anxiety loss and loneliness presentations.

▪ Most students felt that their counsellor had helped them as shown below, although 8% (n=8) felt we did not. 77% (n=74 students) valued exploring their concerns and here are some key aspects of this together with outcomes they found helpful.

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▪ 89% (n=85) had 1 to 6 sessions. Therefore only a minority had ‘extensions’ (6-12 sessions) Note: The average number of sessions is 4. Only 4% (n=4) had a single session compared to 11% in 2016 and 16% in 2015. This could reflect the fact that students have already had a Single Point of Access (SPA) appointment which has met some student’s needs, so those coming for counselling are likely to be those needing ongoing sessions.

▪ At the end of counselling 58% (n=55) said they felt better, 44% (n=41) said their concerns were solved, but 18% (n=17) said that counselling could not help them with their concerns and 11% (n=10) were not happy with counselling and/or their counsellor (this will be communicated to the individual counsellors for reflection). It is sometimes that case that short-term counselling is not the most helpful intervention such as students experiencing frequent crisis points or those who may need longer term support. Referrals are made when this is the case.

▪ 74% (n=71) said counselling helped them in their life in general, 70% (n=67) said it improved their overall student experience. 61% (n=59) said counselling helped them to do better on their course 57% (n=55) said that counselling helped them to stay at university and 45% (n=43) said that counselling helped them to complete their course. Although this type of data is collected at the end of counselling, it is helpful to also have these two months after completing counselling.

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95%- felt listened to

78% - found it helpful to

rethink how they do things.

86% -found it

supportive and helpful

75% -gained a better

understanding of themselves

We asked students what their message is to students who might benefit from counselling. Here are some examples.

“Absolutely just do it. It's changed my life and is a good part of the reason why I'm still at university, able to finish my degree, and still here in general. It can be intimidating telling someone all your little messed up things about yourself, but no judgement made meant I was able to come to terms with them”.

“Just go and see someone. It's always seen as a "weakness" to go and speak to someone when in actuality you have to be very strong to go and speak to someone about your issues. It 100% helps speaking to someone with no bias but also someone that knows how to help. The first time you go you will be anxious but that just part of it. After you get in the room and start opening up and feeling more comfortable with your counsellor you will be begging for more sessions”.

“For those students struggling with issues, I would say definitely make an appointment with the counselling service. I have anxiety issues, so for me this was massive step to talking to someone about my issues. I would say just do it, you have nothing to lose. The counselling team are so friendly, and make you feel incredibly relaxed. If people are uncertain, I would say just try a session. If it’s not for you, then you can try something/somewhere else. But, I guarantee that won't be the case”.

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We also asked students about whether they have been able to make and sustain changes since counselling ended. Here are some examples.

“It was a huge relief to talk to someone about my problems, the advice I was given still comes useful to me when I am feeling down. When I am feeling depressed or anxious I use the techniques my counsellor taught me to calm down and they help me. I think the main thing that got me through this was being determined to get better; if you put your mind into wanting to be better the help from the counselling will be very useful”.

“I came out of the service feeling so much less anxious than I was before, everyday tasks didn't feel like chores anymore. I have been able to sustain those changes because my counsellor taught me some good techniques to maintain it and also to tell the difference between a reasonable amount of worry and my "silly sod anxiety" as I called it”.

“For me it was a steady process of getting over grief as well as the loss of a relationship all at the same time, and counselling helped me get over these more than I could ever have imagined. I wouldn't say I changed my day to day schedule I just learnt how to deal with situations better. Learning to be able to spend alone time was the biggest issue for myself and after just putting myself in that position and in some ways facing a fear head on was the biggest improvement I saw within myself”.

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Comments

1) There are lovely quotes here which students have given permission for us to use in encouraging other students to use the service (useful for events).

2) What students would most like to see is waiting times reduced. We now have a waiting time target of three weeks following a SPA which will be monitored.

3) With students who are not happy with the service it is most commonly down to a mismatch between the counsellor and student (in terms of ways of working or different understandings of what is being communicated). We will continue to check out at the end of the initial appointment that the focus of the work is clear and that the student wishes to continue with the same counsellor or make a change.

4) Development areas and joint working

The service is developing by working in a more integrated way with other welfare teams (disability and mental health) and through the development of strategies to promote the health of the whole student population (Healthy DmYOU). The task is to balance that with responding to individual requests for support (SPA and counselling). Strategies that help to manage one to one demand are therefore helpful in freeing up resources.

In 2016/17 we ran more workshops (for example coaching and managing stress/anxiety). In particular we are receiving a growing number of requests for coaching support in areas such as resilience building. Workshop provision is a clear development area as shown below. It can also be a good way of reaching out to more male and BAME students.

We now produce a monthly newsletter which shown the growing range of projects and activities we are involved with (for example the welfare BAME project, mindfulness, and the Mandala project). Examples of this are shown in our June 17 newsletter sent with this report.

Moving forward what we are doing is

*** Increasing our workshop provision (both quantity and the range of topics such as mindfulness, resilience, managing stress, confidence building). Students benefit greatly from sharing ideas in workshops and knowing that they are not alone (normalising) and having practical strategies to take away. For many students this may be all they need. For others they are helpful before or after counselling sessions and they are good referral point from a SPA. They fit in with a whole population approach linked to strategies such as Healthy DmYOU. Some of these will be joint workshops with our colleagues in disability and mental health. A workshop planner is being developed for the start of the academic year.

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*** Developing a ‘matrix team’ approach using the skills and expertise of staff across teams. For example the BAME project to help improve student access to support services, Mindfulness programmes and targeted faculty interventions where additional support is helpful such as Course Specific Interventions (CSI) workshops including subjects such as confidence building.

*** Enhancing our social media presence including regular wellbeing tweets!

*** Developing a targeted coaching approach to strategies such as Healthy DmYOU (for example resilience building), to the development of employability skills (such as Emotional Intelligence) and to supporting Personal Tutors.

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