WELLNESS
The Wellness Guide
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Contents
Topic
Page
Stress
GP Registration
UCL Psychological
Services
Personal Tutor
Seeing a GP
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Student Disability
Services
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Disabled Students
Allowance
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13
Talking to Academic
Staff about Wellbeing
Issues
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Warnings Signs in
Yourself
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Panic
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Depression
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Warnings Signs in
Yourself
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Contents
Topic
Page
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Suicidal Thoughts
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And Finally...
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Stress
Everyone feels stressed at some point. Everyone.
Whether it be a stranger in the street, a friend, family
member, colleague or someone senior to you, everybody,
at some point, feels stressed. Its normal.
What isnt normal is to feel persistently stressed for a long
time and for it to have a negative impact on your daily life.
If the stress you are feeling is having a significant,
negative impact on your daily life or wellbeing you dont
have to suffer in silence and we strongly advise that you
dont!
There are a lot of support services available to students
struggling with wellbeing issues and we hope that this
guide will encourage you to explore the services available
to you.
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GP Registration
Registering with a GP will speed up the process of getting medical help. For
most students studying at UCL, this would be the Ridgmount Practice, but
if you dont live in the required area you may have to find another GP close
to where you live.
Not all local GP surgeries will be open for accepting new patients but
you can use the NHS Find a GP Service search tool (hp://
www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/GP/LocaonSearch/4) to doublecheck local surgeries prior to your enquiries.
As GP surgeries in more residential areas tend to be busier, please also be
aware that appointments may be scarce.
Ask at Reception for the registration form. This form will ask you things
like your height, weight, address, alcohol consumption, pre-existing
conditions, etc. Following registration, you will then be able to make
appointments at the surgery over the phone or in-person. However, you
can expect to have to make these around 3 weeks in advance.
Alternatively you can attend the walk-in from 9:30-10:30 and 14:30-15:30,
Monday to Friday. To attend the walk-in its best to turn up at reception
half an hour early. You can then ask to see a specific doctor or nurse, but
you will probably be seen sooner if you ask to see a nurse.
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UCLProjectWellness
UCLProjWellness
Sharing our experiences of dealing with mental health problems while at university.
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To register...
Accessible via:
www.ucl.ac.uk/studentpsychological-services/
register
To register, you have to fill-in an online form that asks questions such as
the nature of your problems, how long they have affected you and whether
you have sought help for them before.
After this you can expect to wait a few weeks before
being offered an inial consultaon with a member of
the UCL Psychological Services staff.
During the initial consultation you will be asked to
elaborate on your problems and asked about how you
hope to benefit from psychological/emoonal help.
After this you may be offered short-term counselling, a place in a personal
development workshop, an appointment with a psychiatrist or be referred to
an external service.
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Personal Tutor
You may want to consider talking to your personal tutor
about the difficulties you are facing as they may be able to
advise you about or help you access support services.
You can tell them as much or as little as you feel
comfortable with. But the more they know, the more
appropriate the help that they can give you will be.
Your personal tutor should be able to help you with things
such as re-negoang deadlines, applying for extenuang
circumstances and directing you to appropriate support
services. If you are struggling to receive help from your
personal tutor, dont forget that you can always talk to your
Head of Teaching, also known as your Departmental Tutor.
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Seeing a GP
If you feel that your wellbeing is suffering or
declining you may want to talk to a doctor about
it. If your problems are non-urgent then you may
want to make an appointment with Ridgemount
Pracce or attend their walk-in service. A doctor
may be able to:
1. Assess you for depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions
2. Prescribe you medication, if necessary and if you feel this would be
necessary
3. Refer you to the UCL Psychological Services
4. Refer you to NHS Mental Health Services
5. Discuss other options for treatment/support with you
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To register with the service you need to bring recent medical evidence,
evidence such as a
doctors letter detailing your difficulty or condition, after which you will be given a
simple form to fill in. You may then be invited to attend an appointment with a
member of staff to discuss the support available to you and which (if any) of these
you would like to pursue. You dont need to bring anything to the dropdrop-in though!
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If you qualify for finance from Student Finance England and
live with a mental health condition you may be eligible for
the Disabled S tudents Allowance. This is a grant from the
government, that you don t have to repay, to fund extra
costs incurred as a result of a long-term health term condition.
If you qualify for DSA once, you dont need to reapply.
www.gov.uk/disabledstudents-allowancesdsas/overview
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www.mind.org.uk
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www.mind.org.uk
Pounding heartbeat
Feeling faint
Sweating or hot flushes
Nausea (feeling sick) and/or vomiting
Chest pains
Feeling unable to breathe
Shaky limbs, or feeling like your legs are turning to
jelly
Feeling like youre not connected to your body
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Losing control
Going to faint
Having a heart attack
Going to die
www.mind.org.uk
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in yourself
Feeling
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Stay in contact by messaging, calling or vising them those with depression often find leaving the house difficult
which can contribute to their feelings of isolaon
Keep including them in social events, even if you expect
them to decline invitations
Reassure them that they cannot help being depressed
Encourage them to look after themselves by eang well,
exercising and trying to establish a sleep roune
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Suicidal Thoughts
If you are thinking about killing yourself or actively planning a suicide attempt
then you are having suicidal thoughts. Even if you are not at immediate risk
of attempting suicide but are instead running through plans in your
head or picturing yourself attempting suicide you are still having suicidal
thoughts.
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And Finally...
University can be brilliant but also incredibly stressful. Its not
just about academic achievement but also taking your first
steps into the adult world, which we know is sometimes far
from easy. We hope that this guide gives you some
information about the help available to you to enable you to
thrive while at UCL. Above all, the most important thing to
remember is that you got to UCL as a result of YOUR
efforts because YOU ARE BRILLIANT!!
BRILLIANT You dont have to
accept feeling high levels of stress as inevitable because
there is help available.
We hope you never need any of the help described in this guide
but if you do, we hope you now know how to access it.
If you ever need any help, please dont hesitate to ask for it.it We
all want you to succeed and believe that you can.
Lots of love from the Project Wellness
Wellness Team!
Team
Deborah and Robyn
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Useful Contact
Details
Project Wellness
Email: uclprojectwellness@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/UCLProjectWellness
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Nightline
Listening and support service for London students, 6pm - 8am,
term-time only
Website: nightline.org.uk/
Telephone: 0207 631 0101
Email: listening@nightline.org.uk
Skype Phone: londonnightline
Skype Chat: chat.nightline
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Beat
Information and support for those with Eating Disorders
Website: h p://www.b-eat.co.uk/
Helpline: 0345 634 1414
NHS
Non-Emergency Number: 111 (24 hours a day, 365 days a year)
Website: h p://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx
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Samaritans
24-hour Listening Service
Phone: 116 123
Website: www.samaritans.org/
Email: jo@samaritans.org
Address (Central London Samaritans Branch):
46 Marshall Street, London, W1F 9BF
CALM
Helpline for Men at risk of Suicide, or wishing to talk to
someone (also available to anyone)
Phone: 0800 585 8585
Phone (London only): 0808 802 5858 (5pm-midnight,
everyday)
Website: thecalmzone.net/2011/12/calm-london/
Webchat Service: Available through CALM website (5pmmidnight, everyday)
London Text Service: 07537 404717 (start rst message with
CALM 1)
Mind
Information and support for those with Mental Health Issues
Website: www.mind.org.uk/
Legal advice email: legal@mind.org.uk
Email: jo@samaritans.org
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