Peer support vital to college policy on sexual and mental health

Student health: Developing peer support and mentoring programmes in Irish universities would be one way to address alcohol-related problems and mental and sexual health issues among third-level students, a conference in Galway has been told.

The national alcohol policy adviser to the Department of Health and Children, Dr Ann Hope, highlighted the need to particularly address problems of binge drinking and poor coping skills in first-year male students.

The fact that 83 per cent of students turned to their friends for help with problems while an extremely low rate turned to doctors, counsellors and student services meant the universities needed to build on the idea of peer support and mentoring, she said.

The two-day national conference, Responding to Clan: An integrated approach to health and welfare at third level, is addressing key areas such as low-risk drinking, healthy sexuality and relationships, and positive coping skills.

One of the main recommendations of the Clan report was for third-level institutions to develop a holistic and integrated approach to address the determinants of health within the college community.

Health promotion co-ordinator with student services at NUI Galway, Ms Cindy Dring, explained that the aim of the conference was to provide the knowledge, skills and strategies required for sustainable and integrated health and welfare improvement in the college setting.

Dr Hope told the conference that binge drinking was "the norm" among students with three out of four males and three out of five females involved in this type of drinking.

Students involved in high-risk drinking were more likely to miss days in college, to have money problems, to have been in fights and to feel that drink was harming their studies.

Dr Hope highlighted the fact that poor coping skills such as turning to drink and drugs instead of sharing problems was much more common among male students, particularly in first and second year.

"The transition from the very disciplined second-level system to a very undisciplined third level where you have to call on your own resources is a very dramatic shift and some students do not cope well with this change.

"How we build structures and networks during that first year is very important," she said.

Mark Dooris, co-ordinator of the Health Promoting University Initiative at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, addressed the conference on the development of that initiative which was one of the first in Europe 10 years ago.