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.