Cam is in his first term at University. Cam is the first person in his family to go to Uni. Outside of term time he spends time with his Dad in Newcastle and also goes abroad to visit his Mum in Ghana.
Cam doesn't really get on with his house mates. He missed out on a place in halls because he didn’t put his application in on time. On his english course , it's mostly been lectures so far and he hasn’t really made any friends.
He finds the lectures really hard to follow and has started to miss them altogether. He is really anxious - he doesn't know anyone and he’s really scared of letting his family down.
On his Instagram feed he sees a Kooth Student campaign focussing on loneliness during the first term. He clicks through to Kooth Student and logs on.
He begins to read articles and forums by other students about University life and starts to feel less alone and more connected. After a while he shares his own story and comments and the support he gets from other users encourage him to return to his lectures. He begins to use the messaging function for day to day concerns and eventually decides to drop in for a counselling session.
During the Easter exams he has a series of planned 1 to 1 sessions with a counsellor to keep his anxiety down through setting and monitoring progress towards small, manageable goals. In between sessions he uses the activity centre to distract himself and help to manage his stress.
“In Cam’s case we were able to work with him to manage anxiety levels and keep his stress levels down. The community of other students increased his understanding and normalised his experience. I’m delighted that we got Cam back into lectures and that he continued to get through his first year exams.
Cam knows that we are here for him through the summer recess too and we can help support him back to University in the new term” Dr Lynne Green, Chief Clinical Officer