Specialist Mentor – Mental Health (SM:MH)
Specialist Mentors (SM:MH) provide specialised, one-to-one support to help students address any barriers to learning due to mental health difficulties. They help students to identify and overcome these barriers by teaching them coping strategies, goal setting, time management, and other skills to help them succeed in their studies and create a healthy work-life balance.
The support provided by the mentors can address different areas, such as:
- Coping with anxiety and stressful situations: They can teach you strategies for managing stress and anxiety, and help you find ways to relax and calm your mind.
- Concentration difficulties: They can help you identify the causes of your concentration difficulties, and teach you techniques to improve your focus.
- Time management: They can teach you how to organise your time and set goals, and help you prioritise your workload.
- Goal setting: They can work with you to set realistic and achievable goals, and help you develop a plan to achieve them.
- Timetabling: They can help you create a schedule that works for you and teach you how to stick to it.
- Prioritising workload: They can help you identify the most important tasks, and teach you how to manage your time effectively.
- Creating a suitable work-life balance: They can teach you how to balance your academic and personal responsibilities, and help you create a healthy balance between work and leisure time.
It’s important to note that the support provided by the mentors is not the same as counselling. They’re there to help you understand and recognise the barriers to learning you’re facing and support you in developing strategies to overcome them.
Mentors can work with a range of mental health difficulties including:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Eating disorders
- Bipolar disorder
- Psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia
- Obsessive compulsive disorder, among others.
The support provided will be tailored to the specific needs of the student, and for some students, this support will need to be on-going, while for others it might be gradually phased out or only be required at certain points of their course.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
ADHD is characterised by a predominance of either inattentive or hyperactive-impulsive symptoms, or a combination of both. The condition involves challenges in managing attention, with considerable variability in how individuals focus on tasks based on their relevance. ADHD individuals often seek sensory stimulation and may have a strong need for movement, which can aid in concentration, anxiety regulation, or serve as a form of release. Organisational tasks can be particularly challenging, and there may be difficulties in retaining information in working memory. Written instructions or note-taking can be beneficial. Support in breaking down tasks and managing organisation is often needed.
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Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity acknowledges the natural variations in human brain function and behavioural traits as integral to human diversity, viewing conditions like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and dyscalculia not as disorders but as different aspects of neurocognitive functioning. It advocates for societal shifts towards greater acceptance, rights, and accommodations for those with neurological differences, emphasizing inclusion and support. The concept of a "spiky profile" integrates with this view, illustrating how individuals may exhibit significant strengths in certain areas while facing challenges in others, further highlighting the diverse spectrum of human abilities and the need for tailored support.
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Dyspraxia
Dyspraxia affects both fine and gross motor skills, significantly impacting writing, typing, and self-care activities. Dyspraxic individuals may also face challenges with memory, attention, perception, and processing, leading to difficulties in planning, organisation, executing actions, or following instructions in the correct order.
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Dyscalculia
Individuals with dyscalculia struggle with mastering arithmetic skills, calculations, number sense, and mathematical reasoning. Challenges often extend to understanding quantities, time, and abstract numerical concepts. Dyscalculia is frequently accompanied by working memory difficulties. Approximately 50% of individuals with dyscalculia also face reading challenges, and many experience significant maths anxiety.
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Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that affects the ability to develop automatic and fluent word reading and spelling skills. It is often associated with challenges in phonological awareness, which involves understanding and manipulating the sounds in words, and may also impact orthographic processing—the recognition of whole words, letter strings, or spelling patterns. Dyslexic individuals might be self-conscious about reading aloud, which can also hinder comprehension, and may avoid using complex vocabulary in writing to prevent spelling errors. Though not officially part of the diagnostic criteria, dyslexic individuals often struggle with organisation, sequencing, and may have low academic self-esteem. A notable discrepancy exists between their confidence in verbal tasks versus written tasks.
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Autism
According to current diagnostic criteria, autistic individuals face challenges primarily in social communication and exhibit restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour. The severity of these challenges can vary significantly. Many autistic individuals have sensory sensitivities that are particularly challenging in new and unfamiliar environments. Furthermore, they often prefer structured and predictable settings, benefiting from ample time to process information and adapt to changes. Social anxiety can pose a significant challenge in unstructured and unpredictable social situations. While the challenges of autism might be less visible in certain settings, they can still have a profound, cumulative effect on mental health, well-being, and may lead to burnout.
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