Supporting students: Mental Health Journeys

Julitta

Age: 18

Course of Study: Nutrition and Food Science

Your relationship to student: Flatmate

Personal info:

Julitta is 18 and has moved into halls with five other people. This is her first time living away from home and she has come to university straight from high school.

Health:

Problems with anxiety, confidence issues, depression from an early age and recently has experienced problems with eating.

Issue student presents to you:

Julitta is your flatmate and recently you have started to notice that she seems over-tired and isn’t eating much in the flat. You are all new students and don’t know each other very well but you are concerned. Julitta goes to see her family most weekends so you don’t spend much time together. You aren’t sure how to start the conversation with her.

Click for guidance notes

For support and advice on how to support someone with an eating disorder visit the B-eat website: www.b-eat.co.uk NUS Scotland’s Think Positive Self-Management resource is a useful document to help students identify ways to support their own mental health and to enable staff to support them too. You can find the resource here: www.thinkpositive.scot/resources