That was the verdict of University of Otago vice-chancellor Grant Robertson about the opening of the new Student Wellbeing Hub, Te Pou Whirinaki.
Mr Robertson said yesterday’s opening was a ‘‘significant’’ day for the student population, as the new hub, situated in the university Link near the central library, would provide a much easier connection for students wanting to access early mental health support.
‘‘When I was a student at the university 30 or so years ago, student health was in part of the Clocktower building, and when you walked in to student health, you sat down in a fairly cramped waiting room, and through one door was the student health, and through the other door was the student counselling.
‘‘Not exactly an environment where you were keen on going in to get your counselling support, because absolutely everyone in the waiting room knew exactly what was going on.’’
‘‘What’s been missing is the wellbeing support. The space that you can be in to start looking after yourself, start dealing with issues, resolving things early, rather than being in a situation where you find yourself in a crisis, or you find yourself in a position where you’re over with our amazing staff at student health and counselling.
‘‘I know that for at least one of the things I was dealing with back then, this would have been the space where I could have got the support that I needed quickly and from my peers.’’
The service is delivered by a mental health clinician (manager) and four hauora connectors, supported by 15 casual peer staff.
A student who visits the hub will be supported by the team there, as well as be referred to other services on campus or in the community, as needed.
‘‘So, for us, it’s a real breakthrough moment for the university to have a facility like this that hopefully means you don’t need to go and get further support from our great people at the student counselling service and allows you to deal with problems before they manifest into something big.
‘‘So, I definitely could have benefited from a service like this when I was a student.’’
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey was also present at the opening.
He said it was a ‘‘landmark’’ day about how people respond to mental health, especially within tertiary institutions.
