If you believe there is an immediate risk to the student or others or an emergency cause for concern please alert campus security on 01784 443888 or seek specialised external support and then alert us. 

Please also alert the emergency services and seek support by calling 999. 

Advice and contact details for specialist and out of hours services are available on our emergency support pages. 

Are you concerned about a student at Royal Holloway?  

Other students and staff may the first person to notice if a student is struggling or vulnerable. Trust your instinct and don’t ignore your concerns - early intervention support for students works well and can prevent a concern from becoming overwhelming. 

If there is a general wellbeing concern please contact our Wellbeing Advisers at: wellbeing@royalholloway.ac.uk

If there is a disability or medical concern please contact our Disability Advisers at: disability@royalholloway.ac.uk 

If there is an immediate risk identified the person concerned should call 999 and (if on campus) security. 

All members of the Royal Holloway staff and student community have a responsibility to safeguard the health and wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults (or adults at risk). Our Safeguarding Policy is available here and defines these as:

• Child: A person who is under the age of 18 
• Vulnerable Adult: A person aged 18 or over who by reason of mental or physical disability or illness may be unable to care for themselves or protect themselves against significant harm or exploitation. 

If a student or staff member identifies a safeguarding concern it should immediately be reported to the Designated Safeguarding Lead at safeguarding@royalholloway.ac.uk.

If you are unsure if your concern is a safeguarding matter please do speak to a member of staff, your Personal Tutor or Supervisor or the DSL as a priority.  It is important to act quickly in such cases so as to minimise risk of harm.

Safeguarding can also be used by staff to refer more broadly to concerns about the mental health and wellbeing of students, that are managed under our cause for concern processes within the Wellbeing Department.  

Friends can be a great support network for each other and we recognise the importance and value of peer support. However you should be careful not to take on more than you can comfortably cope with and not to support someone to the detriment of your own health, wellbeing and academic engagement.

Boundaries are incredibly important for both you and your friend. It is important to remember that you are not responsible for another person's difficulties and that you may need to encouage them to seek support through the university support services or our external support partners.     

Surrey & Borders Mental Health Crisis Hotline 

The local Crisis Mental Health hotline is available 24/7 on 0800 915 4644 and the Woking Safe Haven is  open each evening from 6pm - 11pm 

Support for a friend (Student Minds) 

This information from Student Minds has been taken from their 'Looking After A Mate' guide.  It includes advice on how to start a conversation with a friend, tips to look after yourself and guidance and advice about support for specific difficulties. 

Are you helping someone who is depressed or anxious? (SAD: Students Against Depression) 

This guide from SAD includes advice on noticing the signs, responding to suicide risk along with research, evidence and resources.

C-O-P-E

If you’ve got a friend who is in distress or in serious crisis - including talking of suicide – consider the acronym COPE: be Caring, Optimistic, Practical – and seek an Expert.

Be Caring: Never ignore or take a suggestion of self-harm lightly.  Research shows most people who attempt suicide normally tell someone else they’re thinking about it first.  Ask them, and don’t be afraid that talking about the threat will put ideas into the person’s mind.  It’s more likely they’ll appreciate being taken seriously.

Be Optimistic: Most human problems can be solved with time, care and expert help no matter how hopeless they might seem.  Don’t give up hope just because your friend has temporarily lost theirs – their problem can be overcome.  At the same time, however, don’t let your optimism lead you to dismiss or make light of the person’s concerns.

Be Practical: If a friend says they’re thinking about suicide do not ignore this.  Involve other people, including the emergency services if you need to.  Be especially vigilant if someone is intoxicated, under the influence of drugs, if they have made a suicide attempt in the past, or if they have a clearly formulated plan.  Don’t however, get drawn into making unrealistic promises of long-term support that you’re unlikely to be able to keep.

Seek an Expert: If the person in distress refuses to get help once the immediate crisis is over, consider contacting someone yourself in order to plan what steps can be taken to get support for yourself and your friend. Try to understand protective factors for your friend.

For further advice and guidance please contact the Wellbeing Support team or access emergency support information for urgent care.

Please be aware that in line with the data protection laws, we can usually only discuss a student's circumstances with a third party with the students explicit consent. 

We can reassure you that every concern is triaged and followed up in the most appropriate way by a member of our department.

When you contact our department we will be pleased to listen to you, advise you on how you can signpost to or support someone in accessing support but we will not be able to disucss the specific circumstances of the student's situation with you.  We hope that any information provided to a third party will allow and enable the student to make an informed and constructive choice about accessing support services.  Students are able to share their consent for us to share information with other support agencies, family or supporters. 

If you would like to discuss this further please contact us and or complete a student consent form. 

There are extreme circumstances where this may vary which you can read below.

We understand and acknowledge our responsibility to act reasonably to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our students and recognise this must be balanced by our adult students having agency and control over decisions related to their mental health and wellbeing.  We also understand in some cases it is not appropriate or helpful for a student’s family to be contacted in the event of a personal crisis and will, wherever possible, be guided by a student’s choice and preference.

All students are required to share emergency contacts of their choice with us and generally reasons for contact would include a serious medical emergency or hospitalisation, where a student is believed to be missing, or when there is an immediate risk to the health and safety - death or serious physical harm - of the student or others. 

In all cases careful and risk assessed consideration will be given to speaking to an emergency contact and considered on an individual basis.  We will seek to discuss our wish or intention to make contact with the student unless it is not possible to do so, would cause critical delay, or where a student may not have the capacity to discuss this. If capacity to consent is a concern the university will share both emergency contact details with the emergency services (Paramedics or Police) supporting the concern.

We reserve the right to contact an emergency or trusted contact without consent if we consider it in the students’ vital interests to do so.