Mental health support for international students
When you come to a new country, start learning new knowledge, and meet more friends with different cultural backgrounds, you may be excited. But at the same time, you also need to adapt to the new environment, speak another language in your daily life, and feel far away from your friends and family, which can also be very scary.
Enrolling in a new school is a huge change. All students, whether from the UK or other countries, may feel overwhelmed at some point. This is quite normal.
You may feel different negative emotions. International students can have many concerns, including:
- Language barriers
- Not understanding the cultural background of new countries
- Financial worries
- Exam stress
- Worrying about proving yourself to your parents
You can try some simple methods, such as going outside, contacting the public, don’t isolate yourself in your room, and talk to your friends and family about your feelings.
Where to get help
At your institution
Most institutions will specifically set up health-related departments, which will include support for mental health, you can find the introduction through the official website, or you can consult the relevant office for more information.
Under normal circumstances, they will communicate with you privately. In the UK, consulting services have a strict confidentiality policy. This means that unless you agree to share any information about you, no one will know if you have participated in the service (including your friends or family members).
You can also talk to academic supervisors about your concerns, and they will show you instructions or provide some specific help.
Taking the University of Sheffield as an example, a page about mental well-being is set up on its official website, which summarizes information related to mental health and seeking help, please refer to this link:
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mental-wellbeing
Other organisations
If you want to seek psychological counseling or help outside the school, there are some organizations in the UK that can help you, such as:
Your doctor
If your situation has not improved and you need more professional help and treatment, please go to the hospital to find your psychotherapist.
Other tools
At present, there are many excellent applications to choose on mobile devices. They have different functions and can also be used as a supplement to the above methods. Here are some free applications for reference: