Health and wellbeing shift in student needs . We were seeing a post- COVID generation of university students who seemed to be facing increased challenges with regards to their mental health , finances , education and overall wellbeing .
Health and wellbeing shift in student needs . We were seeing a post- COVID generation of university students who seemed to be facing increased challenges with regards to their mental health , finances , education and overall wellbeing .
Online learning over the previous two years had clearly brought some challenges and the loss of face-to-face interaction with peers and professionals had resulted in a lot of anxiety , limited motivation and some issues with engaging with the technology . We were seeing more issues around financial stress ; many students had lost their part-time jobs in lockdown . There was undoubtedly some issues due to social isolation and confidence loss and there seemed to be a real loss of social skills .
We had noticed a rise in referrals across student services , with a marked increase in conditions such as eating disorders , health anxiety , neurodiversity more generally , and a real sense of fear and uncertainty about the future .
Alongside this , we were finding that we were less able to rely on support from the NHS , students were facing longer waiting times , some services were closing to referrals and even getting a GP appointment was appearing to be a challenge .
We were feeling as an institution that we had to make some changes to our support offer to meet the needs of our student body . Our teams within student support were feeling a renewed pressure and we needed to develop our service to address these new challenges .
These developments occurred simultaneously with the introduction of a new Head of Student Support , who had worked alongside occupational therapists in previous roles and had an understanding and vision of how occupational therapy could enhance our service , while offering some efficiencies .
I had been a practice educator for many years and always offered student placements when I was working within the NHS and I was keen to do this again . A first important step was to provide occupational therapy student placements .
Between March and May 2022 , we took two full-time occupational therapy students . This was an incredibly positive experience for the whole department and helped to reinvigorate our student services generally .
The placement students worked mainly within health and wellbeing , but were able to support the disability support team , help out our funding team and they even got involved in a couple of cases with our accommodation team , which was looking at disabled students ’ needs within our student accommodation in the coming year .
In response to the impact that taking occupational therapy students had across the whole service , it was agreed to factor this into a departmental restructure . My role was developed and I have become a senior occupational therapist , rather than a generic health and wellbeing practitioner , and we have employed a full-time Band 5 occupational therapist .
Alongside this , we have developed our occupational therapy student placement offer , resulting in an occupational therapy service that sits across health and wellbeing and disability support within student support .
Reflections
Showcasing our work at the AMOSSHE conference was an overwhelming positive experience . Representatives from universities across the UK , Ireland and even Singapore were keen to learn about the value of occupational therapy .
The take home message was that occupational therapy is a natural fit within the area of student support , where presenting issues are varied and often transient in nature .
Our ability to build therapeutic relationships and the holistic way in which we work ensures that all interventions are relevant and realistic , which is highly important to a student client group , who often have heavy commitments and many are restricted by financial constraints .
Future plans
Over recent months I have been forging links with a network of occupational therapists working within universities across Ireland who have very generously shared their work and invited me into their networks .
The University Mental Health Advisers Network ( UMHAN ) also has a specialist occupational therapy group , which allows a connection with other occupational therapists working within student support roles in higher education .
It is the belief of our team that occupational therapy has undoubtedly enhanced our student support offer and I believe that the scope of this should extend beyond higher education to further education , secondary and primary schools .
Words CLARE COPLEY , Senior Occupational Therapist . Leeds Conservatoire , email clare . copley @ lcm . ac . uk
December 2023 OTnews 31