Student helpline volunteers see cries for help double among their peers

As twilight descends on a deserted Bristol University campus, a team of student helpline volunteers gets ready to help tackle the youth mental health crisis throughout another long, lonely lockdown night.

“The number of calls that we have has really increased during Covid,” says Chelsea Henshaw, 21, a third-year medicine student who helps run Bristol Nightline.

“A lot more people are reaching out to try and find help during this time because things are so difficult for them," Henshaw says. "We tend to have people calling about student life in general, relationships, things like mental health - anxiety and depression and potentially even suicide. And I feel like lockdown and Covid has heightened everything in all of those areas.”

She is one of 2,500 student volunteers across 123 UK campuses running Nightline phone and instant-message “listening services” from dusk until dawn. Students call anonymously and receive confidential emotional support, designed to plug the overnight void when most university mental health services shut down.

Mental health was already a pressing issue at universities before the pandemic hit, but has spiralled as lectures and seminars shifted online. More than half of students say their wellbeing has deteriorated or been negatively impacted by Covid-19, a recent National Union of Students (NUS) poll found. Just 20 per cent of students said they had sought mental health support.

A window into the scale of the problem, Nightline Association has seen calls to its 37 helplines relating to academic issues more than double since last March. Calls discussing depression have jumped more than 50 per cent.

More students have been using its webchat option as volunteers fought to keep the service running during lockdowns, and those simply reaching out for a chat trebled.

In Bristol, fellow medicine student Nelima Hossain, 20, is on call during the night with Chelsea in case the volunteers staffing the phone lines need support themselves, especially during lockdown.

“The most common calls that we've got during Covid are about students in their final year," says Hossain, "trying to do the dissertation, not being able to get adequate help as easily."

But the helpline is having an impact on callers. “Just [through] the process of listening and asking questions based on what they said," she adds, "they managed to reach a conclusion. That’s amazing to me.”

Master’s student Emily Quain, 22, volunteers at Nottingham University’s Nightline, and has noticed a worsening crisis. “A lot of people are finding it really tough doing everything online. I know a lot of people and callers find it really hard to engage with content online and stay motivated when not able to socialise with people on your course.”

Callers are also fearing further restrictions, she warns. “It's going to be the next thing that we hear about that's really quite frightening for a lot of people, dreading that another lockdown might be announced. So it's just a lot of uncertainty.”

The pressure of paying for empty term-time accommodation while stuck in hometowns - estimated to total £1 billion so far this academic year - has burdened students’ mental health, as has the insistence of universities on still paying £9,250 tuition fees, the charity YoungMinds says.

Rent strikes swept campuses last term as worry over rent payments flared into anger. Some halls of residence were likened to prisons as students condemned a lack of wellbeing support in quarantine. Calls for “safety net” assessment policies to protect grades are mounting, with most students told to sit their courses and exams remotely until at least Easter.

The autumn term saw 39 ambulances called to campuses for suspected suicide, suicide attempts and self-harm - more than half of the previous academic year’s total. That data covered just 13 universities, with most lacking any figures. As many as half of Britain’s universities hold no statistics on student suicides.

Some university students did not make it through last term. Finn Kitson, 19, was told to self-isolate ten days into his first year at the University of Manchester and was learning online. He was found dead in his room three weeks after arriving. An inquest has been opened.

Warwick University student Will Bargate, 23, returned home to Essex before the first lockdown. Weeks into his second year, in October, he was found dead after going missing for five days. An inquest is ongoing.

Separately, several Newcastle halls drug deaths in October left students shaken.

Tom Madders, of YoungMinds, said: “University can be hard for many young people at the best of times, which is why early support for their mental health is absolutely necessary.

“Universities must ensure that all students know how and where to get help if they need it – and we also need the Government to make sure improved mental health support is available for all young people through the NHS and local charities.”

Larisa Kennedy, NUS president, stressed that Covid-19 has “entrenched the disadvantage that marginalised groups feel”, so “targeted support must be offered to students of colour, disabled students, student parents and LGBT+ students".

At Nightline, Henshaw has a message for anyone needing help. “People can say, ‘It's 3am, and I can't sleep because I'm really, really struggling with something difficult, but I know who I can call - I can call Nightline because they're up, they're awake and it's their role to speak to me’.

“We like to be there for them in that way. And in that moment.”

Help at hand

If you are finding things tough, you can find your local Nightline here. You can also talk to the Samaritans any time of the day or night, for free on 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.org.uk. Papyrus, the young person suicide prevention line, also offers confidential support on 0800 068 4141, text 07860 039 967, or email pat@papyrus-uk.org.