Universities and colleges throughout the UK are outsourcing mental health services at a time when depression rates among students are skyrocketing, critics alarm. In a move clearly aimed at shifting the problem to the National Health Service (NHS), the government health care system in the UK, universities are outsourcing or reducing their counseling services.
Unable to accommodate the rising demand, universities are renaming their mental health student support to services for “well-being”.
Some colleges intend to maintain a reduced number of counselors, while others are referring students to the NHS directly. University leadership is telling professional counselors to reapply for jobs as wellbeing counselors. If they refuse, they lose their jobs.
Hull, Essex, and Wolverhampton are all outsourcing their mental health services. Spokespersons of the universities insist they are improving and expanding their offerings, but critics are afraid that students with severe mental health issues could end up disadvantaged because “well-being” is not the same as “counseling.” The former is a wide-scale approach to mental health that includes meditation, mindfulness, healthy eating, and stress-relieving activities such as walks and yoga.
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy expresses concern over the loss of experienced, trained mental health experts on campus at a time when student suicide rates are at an all-time high, calling the move by some colleges “perverse and dangerous.”