Student’s suicide spotlights barriers to mental health care

Students suffering from mental health emergencies are too often let down by gaps between health services provided in their university and family home locations, according to the family of a medical undergraduate who took her own life.

Maia Schroder-Lewis died by suicide on 1 September 2022 while she was living back in Bristol for the summer holidays, between her second and third years at Cardiff University. Her inquest heard how, in the midst of a crisis, the 21-year-old faced a series of bureaucratic barriers due to being registered with a GP the other side of the Severn Bridge.

Her mother, Anna Schroder, told Times Higher Education “unnecessary obstacles” were placed in her daughter’s way as she called for universities and NHS services to work more closely together to help students get the support they need.

Student mental health has become an ever-more pressing concern for institutions in recent years, with a 2022 Student Minds survey indicating that half of respondents had experienced mental health issues.

But in-house practitioners have highlighted a lack of resources while issues with working with local health services have endured, despite more money being invested to encourage greater collaboration.

Bristol Coroner’s Court heard that Ms Schroder-Lewis had struggled when she started university in September 2020, with her first year heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

She sought help and was prescribed antidepressants, but continued to experience low mood and anxiety, which continued into her second year. She moved back to Bristol early, intending to return to Cardiff later in 2022.

On 30 August, her mother called a helpline in Cardiff, which advised her to call the equivalent in Bristol, which in turn said that they could not help until her daughter registered with a GP in the city, thus denying her access to a crisis team that specialises in mental health support.

This, it later emerged, had been the wrong course of action and the call handler should have put Ms Schroder-Lewis through to a more senior practitioner. The family’s lawyer, Leanne Devine, a partner at the firm Leigh Day, said it was indicative of how, throughout the attempts the family made to get help, “they just faced barriers everywhere they went”.

“In terms of dealing with Maia and the crisis she was in, it just added so many complicating factors,” said Ms Devine of her status as a student. “I know, from speaking to her mother, it just added more hurdles in the way of trying to get support for her daughter.”

Campus resource collection: Well-being in higher education

Further attempts to access NHS mental health services proved equally frustrating for the family and, on the morning of her death, Ms Schroder-Lewis got back in contact with the university’s student health and well-being team, but this was not an emergency service.

She received an automated reply signposting to other organisations, many of which she had already attempted to call, and the promise of a referral in 48 hours.

Ms Devine said at this stage that the family were just trying to get support from anybody they could and it was “another sad example” of how emergency care was so hard to access. Ms Schroder-Lewis was found unresponsive later that day. 

“In general, we would like to see better funding, [and] clearer, more responsive joined-up pathways into services,” said Ms Schroder.

“We don’t think that AWP [Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership] gave due consideration to Maia’s student status as a risk factor. Maia’s case demonstrates the real difficulties students face in accessing responsive help for their mental health.”

The issue of student suicides has been highlighted recently by bereaved parents as part of the ForThe100 campaign, named after the number of students who die by suicide on average every year. Earlier this month the group held a vigil at the University of Leeds in memory of those lost. 

Higher education minister Robert Halfon has called for all universities to sign up to the Student Mental Health Charter initiative, which aims to support universities to offer better mental health support to staff and students by September 2024 – in the latest update this month it was revealed that 96 universities have signed up so far, two-thirds of eligible institutions.

In Ms Schroder-Lewis’ case, her family have expressed disappointment at the uncritical conclusion of the inquest in relation to the treatment she received from the NHS.

An independent investigation has been commissioned by the local integrated care board that will examine the approaches of all services involved in her case.

Cardiff University said that, while the coroner had not criticised its services, its “thoughts and deepest sympathies” remained with Maia’s family and friends. “We will continue to support any further investigations and consider any recommendations for change that may result from this tragic case,” a spokesperson said.

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership said that it was “committed to implementing the learning from our own internal reviews and supporting the further independent review being led by the NHS Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board”.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com

• If you’re having suicidal thoughts or feel you need to talk to someone, a free helpline is available around the clock in the UK on 116123, or you can email jo@samaritans.org. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.