Young London SOS: ‘University students need help to cope with isolation of lockdown’

Coronavirus - Mon Jan 4, 2021
Zain Sikafi, a GP from Harrow and Brent who has set up an online counselling service, praised our Young London SOS campaign and warned that older students must not be forgotten
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Anna Davis @_annadavis28 January 2021

University students are facing a mental health crisis and need urgent help to cope with the impact of the pandemic, a London doctor warned today.

Zain Sikafi, a GP from Harrow and Brent who has set up an online counselling service, praised our Young London SOS campaign and warned that older students must not be forgotten.

He said first-year university students   left bruised by the A-level fiasco last summer are now at university without any of the normal support systems, while older students are facing bleak job prospects and isolation.

Dr Sikafi said: “The first-year students we have spoken to have never seen their colleagues or made new friendships or even been on campus. They have done everything online. They have not built those really key social networks that are so wonderful about university. They are facing exams with no physical, real social networks and everyone is stuck in their homes or apartments or dorms. It is very difficult and there is no doubt the anxiety is getting worse.”

Dr Sikafi set up Mynurva, a counselling service, to help people access therapy quickly after seeing patients’ lives fall apart while they were on long NHS waiting lists for counselling. The service, which helps people with problems including anxiety, depression and panic attacks, has seen a 20-fold rise in demand since the summer.

He said the Standard campaign — highlighting the mental health crisis among young people in the wake of the pandemic and promoting counselling in schools through our appeal partner Place2Be — is “important and needed”.  

He added that the current level of mental health support for university students is also inadequate, with young people often facing a protracted wait for help. He added: “Student support services are not fit for purpose. If a university has one wellbeing officer for up to 30,000 students what good is that? They are not kitted out for this. I really want to make sure these students have some support to help get them through this unprecedented situation.”

Harriet Cochrane, a third-year music student at King’s College London, echoed Dr Sikafi’s concerns. She said: “There is some wellbeing help but there is never that much and it is never advertised in a way that would make you actually want to use it.”

The 20-year-old is living in a flat in Islington with two student friends. All her lectures are online and she spends most of her day inside. She said lockdown has had a huge impact on the mental health of her friends. I don’t think anyone I know would say they haven’t been impacted. Even the happiest, most uncomplicated, funniest people have in some ways enormously struggled. The most worrying thing is seeing friends who are usually the life and soul of a party not even attending online lectures and seminars because they find it too miserable.”

She added: “It is difficult waking up on a Monday and seeing your week stretching out beyond you with no plans and nothing to look forward to.  

“You have to consciously stop yourself from  going insane a lot of the time. There is no recognition that  this is a horrible, horrible way to spend your twenties.”

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