Counselling service waiting times
Students seeking counselling support from the University can now expect a reduction in waiting times for an appointment.
The University has increased the amount of resource it puts into counselling every year for the past four years, against a backdrop of a big increase in demand for student counselling UK-wide.
At Edinburgh, demand has gone up by 45% over the past year.
Reducing waiting times
Over the years the University has increased staffing for counselling, increased the number of sessions available and increased the amount of space given over to counselling sessions.
With this extra resource, the University is now committed to reducing the waiting time for an appointment after a student has been assessed.
To assist with this, students will now be offered a total of four sessions, instead of six as was previously the case, although students considered to be “at risk” will continue to receive up to six sessions. Figures showed that the average number of sessions taken up by a student seeking help were running at 3.5.
The counselling service provides really valuable and professional support to the student community and, with demand rising, we are committed to ensuring that the amount of time a student has to wait for an appointment is kept as brief as possible.
In addition we are taking further steps to minimise the number of failed appointments through students not accepting appointments, not attending or cancelling late. We will be providing additional weekly group sessions on managing anxiety and managing low mood after the spring vacation until the end of semester. We have also identified additional online resources for students to support themselves.