Mental help at hand

TUTORS as well as trained university counsellors receive calls for help from mentally ill students and need the skills to cope, according to a survey.

Researchers at Hull University's School of Community and Health Studies found 35 per cent of the 429 staff who responded had supervised students with mental health problems in the past five years.

More than a quarter of these problems were described as "serious" or "life threatening".

Hull will use the information to launch a joint course for academic and student support staff this year.