The Mayor of Bristol is pressing for more action to be taken to prevent student suicides in the city.
Marvin Rees said not enough is being done to reduce the rate of suicides at Bristol’s universities, during his fortnightly press conference. He called for more investment into wider mental health support, saying “people are more likely to turn up to work”, if mental illnesses were addressed.
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Public health interventions need to begin from an early age, he said, adding that missed opportunities “happen all the time”. Asked if enough was being done on young people’s mental health, he said: “Enough is a really challenging word, because there could always be more done. I used to work in mental health, in the public health team.
"The public health approach is not when you’re in crises, it’s how you build wellbeing in the first instance, building resilience. Coming into office, it was one of the priority issues, and for our youth mayors as well.
“When we spend money on children’s mental health, we build a more resilient population. And if you want to make it very functional, you make people who are more likely to turn up to work consistently. We can see that health is now an economic issue, so you’re actually investing in your population for the future.
“Do I think enough is being done? No, because you can’t do it without money. But are we doing all we can? I would say we’re nearly there. We can always tap into more, and we can always be better coordinated. There are missed opportunities for early intervention, these things happen all the time. Is it a priority? Absolutely. But we’re not a perfect organisation, just like no organisation is perfect. I know things get missed all the time.”
Student suicides in Bristol were brought back into the spotlight this month, after a judge ruled the University of Bristol discriminated against a student who killed herself in 2018. Natasha Abrahart, 20, was found dead on the day she was supposed to give a presentation to a large audience, despite having social anxiety disorder. The university said it might appeal the ruling.
Both the University of Bristol and the University of West of England have faced sustained scrutiny for the mental health support they provide to students, amid several deaths in recent years. But Mr Rees said action also needs to happen before young people reach university.
He added: “It’s difficult for universities, because that pathway on mental health doesn’t start at age 18 or 19 when someone arrives at university. All the resilience that we build up in our mental health starts very young. You start pre-birth, actually, and then you build up resilience as you go. Or, you’re slowly dismantled as you go through life, if you don’t get the support. So by the time students get to university, there’s a vulnerability there: leaving home, living in halls, the social pressure, the academic pressure, can all land on top of existing fragilities.
“While clearly universities need to be on the top of their game, at the same time we need to be saying to universities ‘how can we support you?’ Because it’s a challenging time. This is a very visible point in a much wider social problem that we have, of deteriorating mental health.”
