Mental health care at University

The uni virtual clinic (UVC) has been established as a comprehensive online service developed in partnership between the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University and the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre.  It has been designed to prevent and treat mental health problems and related issues in university students as an anonymous, free service, incorporating evidence-based treatments and information. 

The uni virtual clinic: changing the way mental health care is provided to young people at university has been published after the completion of a pilot version at ANU and outlines the argument for extending the UVC program across Australian Universities.

According to the report, half of all university students will experience a mental disorder and one in ten will contemplate suicide.  Only a third of young people seek help for mental health problems and this figure is even lower among university students.  Making this program anonymous is one way of increasing help-seeking in this vulnerable group.