Getting support from the Mental Health Advisory Service

We can help you if you have a mental health condition and it is impacting on your ability to manage your studies, or if you are a prospective student with a mental health condition who is interested in studying at Birkbeck. 

How to be referred to the service

You can be referred to our service through any of the following channels:

• Self-referral: if you want to refer yourself to the service, please complete and submit the Screening Tool Form.
• Referral by an academic, faculty or another department within the College: we will accept referrals from academics or other parts of the College.
• Referral from another area of the Wellbeing Service: the Disability and Dyslexia Service, and the Counselling Service will refer clients to us if they feel it is appropriate.
• Study Support Plan: you can also complete a Study Support Plan, which will help us to determine appropriate support for your needs.

What happens once you've been referred

Once you have been referred, we will offer you an appointment with a Mental Health Adviser, who will work with you to plan support that is tailored to your needs - for example:

• You might be given a referral for onward support (this could be for counselling, mentoring, or another disability service).
• If your health issue is significant and requires treatment, we can ask our visiting doctor to see you and will liaise directly with the relevant NHS service.  

(If you are a student, please note that we will not contact you unless our Mental Health Advisers have received your express permission to do this from whoever has referred you.)

Disclosing your condition

When you apply for a place at Birkbeck, you will be asked to disclose information about your condition, so we can provide you with appropriate help and support during your studies.  

We will treat all disclosed information with sensitivity and discretion, in line with our confidentiality policy.