2.2 The needs of tutors
For tutors to be able to provide effective support to students with a MHC, tutors explained they needed to be skilful, to maintain boundaries and to have training in mental health support.
One tutor summed up what tutors need to be:
‘I think you need to be, yeah, quite skilful in terms of how you develop that rapport and getting the balance right between using your expertise but using it in quite a sensitive way – relationship building.’
Tutors stated that the following skills were needed to support students with a MHC: counselling skills, coaching skills, communication skills, listening skills and interpersonal skills.
Tutors emphasised the need to make clear that the role of the tutor is to support students in their learning. Some tutors acknowledged that they had not established clear enough boundaries but pointed out that boundaries can often get blurred. Others said that they had needed to contact the Safeguarding Team following distressing messages from a student who was experiencing a crisis. When asked where they went for emotional support tutors responded that they most frequently go to their line manager, followed by colleagues, family and friends, as well as external professional colleagues, Student Support Team, Tutor Forum, Togetherall (online Mental Health support service) and in-house training sessions.
Most tutors said that they would welcome more training to be better prepared to support students with a MHC. Training suggestions were:
‘… anxiety, because that is something that I see students commonly reporting.’
And:
‘I think what I would find useful is actually some training on how I write things down (email or feedback) and how that is perceived with students with poor mental health.’
Having heard from tutors their perspectives on providing support for student with a mental health condition, we then spoke to students who had a mental health condition and were studying at The Open University. Their views are the focus of the next section.