Student mental health action plan

Prevention and early intervention

Action One: Better access to local and national prevention and early intervention services.

Community-based and digital services

Students live and study in our communities and can access the wide range of services and measures of support which are available to members of those communities. The Scottish Government is investing heavily in early intervention and prevention approaches, evidence-based digital supports and community-based mental health and wellbeing services, allocating over £130 million since 2020 on community-based supports and services alone. These supports can and should be accessible to students. This funding is supporting a range of initiatives across Scotland, including:

• Support for grassroots community-based projects, through our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults. These address social isolation, loneliness and mental health inequalities, with a strong emphasis on prevention and early intervention.
• Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services funding for local authorities enables them to provide community-based mental health supports for children and young people (including students) up to the age of 24 (26 if young people are care experienced).

Community-based supports and services are designed to promote prevention and facilitate early intervention. They offer a variety of activities, including sport, exercise, nature-based activities, social spaces, art and culture and therapeutic approaches. They also focus on connecting people and providing community spaces to foster social interaction. The Scottish Government also supports organisations that promote volunteering and provide opportunities for sport and cultural experiences.

There are a number of services and supports that can be accessed digitally that provide quick access to important information and resources which can help students manage their mental health and wellbeing effectively and without delay. Timely support can come through several routes:

NHS 24’s Mental Health Hub is accessible through the 111 service and provides a 24/7 compassionate service to anyone requiring mental health support, or if they are in distress. It provides access to Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) who are specially trained advisors who work in mental health and are supported by Mental Health Nurses (MHNs). PWPs can offer advice on coping with mental health symptoms. They can also recommend and connect people with other services if needed. PWPs can access a range of both NHS Scotland and third-sector organisations to find the right support.

NHS inform, Mind to Mind, BEAT Eating Disorders, Breathing Space, SAMH, and Samaritans provide a range of information and advice for those feeling anxious, stressed, low, or having problems sleeping or dealing with grief.

The Scottish Government is also supporting a number of organisations that offer digital resources and supports to help tackle stigma around mental health and access to therapies across Scotland. These include See Me (Scotland’s national programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination), and Near Me (our national platform for video consultations) which enables people to attend mental health appointments via video chat if they wish to. We have also launched group therapy functions in Near Me. Similar to digital therapies, online appointments can offer people access to group support without needing to attend in person.

There are also 33 evidence-based computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy treatments (cCBT) available online across Scotland, some accessible without a referral from a medical professional. Some of these treatments are supported by psychological therapies services. These digital treatments can support people with issues such as insomnia, low mood, and anxiety.

We have also increased access to internet enabled cCBT so that people can speak to a mental health professional online. Online access to trustworthy mental health support can be helpful for those, needing out-of-hours support, or who find it difficult to attend in person services.

Local community-based services, and the wide range of support materials available to students, which an institution can signpost to, should be articulated in each institution’s Student Mental Health Agreement and set out in the Think Positive Hub which brings together projects, services, resources, and news relating to student mental health, for students and those who support them.

Suicide awareness and prevention

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling the root causes of suicide. Our ten year suicide prevention strategy, Creating Hope Together, and accompanying Action Plan were published jointly with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) in September 2022 and set out a clear plan to reduce suicides in Scotland and address the inequalities which lead to suicide. The Scottish Government has also published its Year Two Delivery Plan 2024-26.

We have created an innovative partnership model - Suicide Prevention Scotland - to lead the delivery of the Suicide Prevention Action Plan, and create a suicide prevention community for everyone working on suicide prevention in Scotland. Effective partnership working is crucial to our approach to suicide prevention. We are using academic evidence, lived experience, practice evidence and data and intelligence to support all sectors to come together and support work on suicide prevention in Scotland. This includes creating a range of resources such as guidance to support local area action planning, locations of concern, and suicide clusters; suicide prevention training and learning resources, building peer support, identifying and supporting people at risk through a relationship and person-centred approach to supporting people at risk of suicide – which we refer to as Time Space Compassion.

The Scottish Government strongly encourages colleges and universities to work closely with Suicide Prevention Scotland and local suicide prevention leads (typically employed by local authorities or health boards), to develop their own suicide prevention plans and to integrate mental health and wellbeing into their teaching programmes.

The resources developed by Suicide Prevention Scotland can assist colleges and universities in the development of their plans which should be informed by academic and practice evidence, data and intelligence and involve people with lived experience in their development. Institutional suicide prevention plans, and the language used to articulate them, should also be informed by the principles set out in Time Space Compassion.

Awareness of self-harm support

The Scottish Government, jointly with CoSLA, published a dedicated Self-Harm Strategy and Action Plan in November 2023. The aim of the Strategy and Action Plan is for people who have self-harmed or are thinking about self-harming, to receive compassionate, recovery-focused support, without fear of stigma or discrimination.

We are committed to exploring opportunities to include safe and evidence-based self-harm learning content and materials in educational settings, and building person-centred support and services across Scotland, including for students.

We are currently funding bespoke self-harm support services through Self-Harm Network Scotland, run by Penumbra. Self-Harm Network Scotland provides one-to-one support for anyone aged 12 and over across Scotland, there is also a national webchat service offering people help out-of-hours, up-to-date, reliable and accessible advice for anyone affected by self-harm on their website, and free training sessions available both in person or online. The Scottish Government strongly encourages colleges and universities to work closely with Self-Harm Network Scotland to increase its knowledge and approach to supporting people who self-harm, and to promote the bespoke services it offers.

Action: The Scottish Government will bring together colleges and universities, Public Health Scotland, Third Sector partners, Suicide Prevention Scotland, CoSLA, and The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education Scotland to facilitate and enhance connections to services and support available locally, and to national organisations that offer prevention and early intervention services.

We encourage institutions to put in place suicide prevention plans and to integrate mental health and wellbeing, including awareness of suicide and self-harm, into their teaching programmes.