'They are a vulnerable group that no-one is taking notice of': Fears over mental health impact of Covid-19 pandemic on Leeds university students

Thankfully that was 2017 and she was free to visit other flats, socialise with whoever she wanted and travel home as and when she liked - simple “lifelines”, she said, which “got her through” that first year.

But the reality for this year's new intake of students is very different.

Thrown together with strangers, in an unfamiliar city, with virtual lectures, banned from mixing with other households and discouraged from travelling home - essentially “trapped,” says Caitlin, who is now in her third year at the university.

Caitlin, 21, said: “I take myself back to being in that flat [in my first year] and I would have felt so trapped in those four walls of my room, especially with home visits not allowed. It brings home how difficult it must be for people who are in that situation and live with strangers or people they used to be friends with and now aren’t.”

The reasons why are clear - the coronavirus swept through universities once students arrived from September, with 1,310 cases being reported at the University of Leeds alone between September 28 and November 1.

But for those who still made the choice to start university, the current situation is far worse than they imagined, says Caitlin.

Universities have told the Yorkshire Evening Post they have made "significant" changes to the their mental health provision in light of the pandemic, but Caitlin said it feels like there has been a lack of support from the Government and university.

“It literally doesn’t feel like uni at all. The general consensus is people are just trying to do the best in a bad situation.

“We don’t necessarily feel as though the mental health support has varied at all from the normal message we’re given from university in a normal year. This is quite baffling given how much students' lives have had to adapt.”

She added: “I really don’t think any of this was thought through. There might be a high amount of students dropping out or [their mental health] deteriorating quickly.”

Theresa Kirk, who runs student mental health support charity It’s Our Day, said many have told her they feel “totally at sea with no support” and warned the pandemic is compounding what was already a mental health “crisis” among the student population.

Before Covid hit, the charity’s weekly breakfast club in Hyde Park was already being inundated with students and Theresa now fears that level of need is going to increase exponentially as the pandemic continues to take its toll.

She said: “The crisis with mental health among young people existed pre-Covid."

“We need to acknowledge that and then take into consideration the added impact of now going off to uni and being in complete isolation.

“It would be difficult anyway had they been at home with networks and friends but they’ve been encouraged and almost convinced that there is some kind of uni life for them.

“They have moved away from home, been put in a city they have no knowledge of, where they know no-one, and been put in lockdown.

“That is going to have an enormous impact on mental health. The services that were there before Covid weren’t able to meet the demand and that’s just added to the situation.

“So the numbers that we were seeing are only going to be on the increase.

“The students that we are talking to at breakfast club are saying the universities are trying but in the main there is no support there. They feel totally at sea with no support.”

Theresa, 58, of Wrenthorpe, Wakefield, founded her charity, originally called ‘Emma’s Embrace’, in memory of her daughter Emma who was a 20-year-old student at Leeds Beckett University when she ended her own life in the early hours of October 27 2018 after a night of drinking with her friends.

The charity now goes by the name 'It’s Our Day' to emphasise the unique challenges and pressures facing students in today’s modern world and for Theresa, her work provides the opportunity channel her grief into trying to stop others suffering the same fate as Emma.

She said: “Emma wasn’t a dark soul that lived in a dark place when she did what she did. It was following a drunk night in her darkest hour before dawn and she made a stupid decision.

“She came in from falling out with her boyfriend and stormed up to her bedroom and did what she did. It was a chain of events at that moment and if any one was different, we wouldn’t be where we are.

“But that being said, she did struggle with anxiety and that feeling that the world generally didn’t give a cr*p about anything.”

But Theresa said the “sales pitch” of university being a chance to experience how to live independently for the first time can cause some to become dangerously isolated from their support systems.

“If I had realised…. I believed the marketing, I believed the sales pitch - ‘Let them be, don’t be pestering, leave them to it.’ Emma believed the sales pitch too - that ‘I’m an adult now’.”

Citing examples such as that student housemates rarely swap family’s numbers in case of concerns and alarms are rarely raised if a student fails to attend lectures for a number of weeks, she said: It’s more [that they have] to just live without any support network at all.

“For me, it’s important that everyone understands the reality of it. We all might make different decisions.”

It’s Our Day launched its Breakfast Club outreach project, partnering with Leeds mental health information portal Mindwell, in October 2019, providing what Theresa says appears to be the only support of its kind to students in the city.

With the offer of a free hot sandwich in a friendly environment, students could come and socialise - with added extras of board games and a guitar - in a room staffed by volunteers including social workers and a therapist who were able to listen and signpost students or help them integrate with peers.

Crucially, the club provided the opportunity for It’s Our Day to distrubute booklets of help and advice on mental health - including signs to look out for in themselves and friends, a list of services available and tips from other students.

Within a few months, over 100 were coming every week.

Theresa said: “People could come to the breakfast club for no reason other than they wanted to get out. When we started I really did think they wouldn’t be interested in sitting in and they would just want a free sandwich but that didn’t matter because I thought, as long as they were coming, and we could get the information out.

“But we didn’t anticipate the response that we got. Most came and stopped all afternoon.”

She said: “What we have learned...is our project has given the students a sense of value and self-worth, with feedback from them telling us the Breakfast Club makes them feel valued and cared about.”

The fact the information is in “hard copy” format is critical, says Theresa, because traditionally it is only found online.

“If a young person is searching online for this information then in all likelihood they have already begun to struggle. Our outreach project makes this information readily available so they fully understand what measures they can take to prevent their mental health deteriorating,” she said.

Since November 7, the charity has been offering a takeaway version of the Breakfast Club offering hot soup along with ‘survival kit’ boxes of food and toiletries - along with the all-important mental health packs - and they have been seeing attendance heading up to pre-Covid levels.

Trustee Jo Hobson said: “In two weeks we are back up to the hundreds and it just shows us that it’s needed. They say they are feeling overwhelmed.

“Due to Covid, they are not being seen by their tutors, not going into the premises, they’re very isolated in their rooms."

Theresa said: “They are a vulnerable, vulnerable group that no-one is taking notice of, being demonised because of the pandemic in some quarters and being called snowflakes.

“Yet they are exercising more resilience than any peacetime generation.”

A spokesman from the University of Leeds said: “In these difficult and uncertain times, the mental health and wellbeing of students remains extremely important to us.

"We’ve made significant changes to our counselling and wellbeing provision during the pandemic, and waiting times for appointments have been kept to a minimum – same-day drop-in appointments are almost always available and more than 90 per cent of students who have registered for support have been offered an initial counselling, wellbeing or mental health appointment within three weeks.

“Like every university we know there is always more to do and, against a backdrop of a national increase in demand for university counselling services, we have increased investment and staff numbers and diversified our support to ensure students can access help whenever they need it.”

A Leeds Beckett University spokesman said student health and wellbeing has been, and remains, "top of our agenda".

He said: "Leeds Beckett is committed to investing in student mental health and wellbeing and we continue to provide increased provision.

“We have increased the number of mental health practitioners in the student support team, both to provide specialist support for students and professional consultancy and advice to staff in dealing with urgent and concerning student scenarios.

“In response to the pandemic, Leeds Beckett has increased the service provided by Kooth, a bespoke free online counselling and emotional support platform, which students can access 24/7, every day of the year and throughout the Christmas break.

“We’ve also increased the specialist support available to students experiencing any form of domestic abuse and the number of Residence Life Officers supporting students in our halls of residence."

It’s Our Day’s Breakfast Club takes place every Saturday, 1-3pm at Cardigan Road Community Centre in Hyde Park - currently with a mobile unit offering takeaways.

For more information visit https://itsourday.org.uk.

Student mental health contacts:

Crisis intervention - 0300 300 1485

Samaritans Leeds - 116 123 or 0113 245 6789

Papyrus (Suicide Prevention Charity) - Helpline UK 08000648 4141

Mindwell www.mindwell-leeds.org.ukStudent Minds - 0113 343 8440 or [email protected]Support the YEP and become a subscriber today. Enjoy unlimited access to local news and the latest on Leeds United, With a digital subscription, you see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Click here to subscribe.