Mental and Social Support Center

Vision

To build a resilient, inclusive university community in which every student and staff member is supported in their mental health and social well-being, empowered to learn, engage and contribute to society with confidence and purpose.

Mission

To provide accessible, evidence-based psychological and social support services to all students and staff of SPU, helping them to navigate personal, academic and social challenges.
To foster a campus culture of mental-health awareness, peer support, social connectedness and help-seeking behavior working in partnership with faculties, departments and student organizations.
To promote social inclusion, reduce stigma around mental health, strengthen interpersonal skills and build resilience so that the SPU community thrives academically, socially and personally.
To collaborate with the Ministry of Higher Education, external mental social service agencies, and community partners to ensure best practices, professional standards and continuity of care.

Objectives

To offer confidential counselling, guidance and support services addressing mental health, emotional well-being, social adjustment, academic stress and life transitions.
To provide early-intervention and preventive programmes (workshops, awareness events, peer-support groups) aimed at building resilience, coping skills, stress management and healthy social relationships.
To create a safe, welcoming environment where students and staff feel comfortable seeking help, sharing concerns and accessing support without stigma.
To monitor and assess the well-being of the university community (via surveys, focus groups, feedback) and use the data to inform service development, policy advocacy and intervention strategies.
To integrate with academic, administrative and student-life units of SPU (for example Student Affairs, Health Services, Career Development) to coordinate support pathways and referral mechanisms.
To develop training and capacity-building for staff, faculty and student-leaders in recognising distress, providing basic first-line support, and guiding onward referral.
To maintain the highest professional and ethical standards in counselling and social support, and to collaborate with regional and national experts in mental health and student welfare.

Services Provided

Individual counselling: One-to-one meetings with trained counsellors for issues such as anxiety, depression, academic stress, adjustment difficulties, relationship problems, grief and loss, identity concerns, etc.
Group interventions & workshops: Sessions on topics such as stress & time management, coping with change, building resilience, effective communication, conflict resolution, study-life balance, peer-support training.
Peer-support programmes: Training of peer-mentors/champions who can provide first-line listening and sign-posting to the Centre, fostering student-to-student support networks.
Social inclusion & community-building activities: Events, clubs and initiatives aimed at creating connectedness (e.g., social mixers, support groups for diverse student populations, mental-health awareness campaigns, guest lectures).
Referral & liaison: Coordination with SPU Health Centre, external mental-health services, social-services agencies and specialised care providers for students or staff requiring stronger intervention.
Crisis intervention & follow-up: Systems for responding to urgent mental-health or social-welfare crises, assessment of risk, safety planning, and follow-through on support.
Training & capacity-building: Workshops for faculty, staff and student leaders on mental-health literacy, identifying signs of distress, responding to students in difficulty, and creating mentally-healthy classrooms/environments.
Monitoring and evaluation: Regular surveys of student and staff well-being, tracking service usage and outcomes, feedback collection, and continuous improvement of support programmes.