June is Youth Month, and the most recent UNICEF South Africa U-Report shows that 73 per cent of children and youth felt they needed mental health support last year.

The University of the Western Cape (UWC) has a range of therapeutic services available to students at its Centre For Student Support Services (CSSS). The CSSS mandate is to provide multifaceted, student-centered co-curricular engagement opportunities and relevant professional services. All offerings are evidence-based and aim to enhance the quality of life, holistic wellness and success of students. They also provide broad programmes, training opportunities and resources aimed at enhancing students’ academic experience, graduate attributes and quality of life.

The Director of CSSS, Laetitia Permall, said: "Post-COVID, there’s been a significant increase in the number of more complex mental health presentations among students. Furthermore, the entire cohort of students, from first to third year, is struggling with adjustment to the in-person campus environment. This is reflected in our data, which shows that the highest number of students who accessed therapeutic services in Semester 1 were in their third year.

CSSS offers UWC students various engagement opportunities throughout the year. These include but are not limited to the Mental Health and Wellness Walk in the Nature Reserve every first Tuesday of the month between 13h00 and 14h00, the Ubuntu Peace Project & Walk for Peace, the Personal Mastery and Empowerment workshops, individual academic coaching, the Student Thermometer (a self-assessment online tool to determine studiousness as a University student through the Office for Academic Skills), reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities, Leadership Engagement talks, and the Gender Equity and Empowerment Project.

The top 5 concerns for UWC students so far this year were depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, adjustment difficulties, trauma, and other stressor related issues. 

Permall said: “The number of individual counselling sessions conducted to date at Therapeutic Services (TS) at CSSS is 1102. These were individual counselling sessions conducted with students from January to May 2023. In addition, 2285 students called the UWC/SADAG crisis counselling helpline for Mental Health and Wellness counselling support from January to May 2023

“Therapeutic Services at CSSS saw a marked increase in escalation referrals from the triage helpline in 2023 compared to 2022. In 2022, the helpline received 249 referrals from January to April 2022, of which 65 were referred back to TS at CSSS as needing urgent and ongoing counselling. In 2023 from January to May, 678 students were referred for a triaging session with the UWC/SADAG helpline and 300 students were referred back to Therapeutic Services for urgent ongoing counselling sessions. The remainder of the students were supported with self-help and psycho-educational support from the helpline staff members.”

Students wanting to reach out for mental health support may call the UWC counselling helpline on 0800 222 333. It is a dedicated UWC crisis counselling helpline, free of charge and available 24/7 to registered UWC students. Students can also send an email requesting counselling from TS at CSSS to csss@uwc.ac.za. The students will be asked to include a contact number so that the UWC helpline staff members can give them a triage call before appropriate referral.