Supporting your wellbeing
It’s always important to look after your own wellbeing and mental health, particularly if you have been helping a distressed student or colleague. It can be emotionally demanding to support others, particularly if they may be experiencing distress or crisis.
Remember that your role is to offer support, listen, and signpost to appropriate resources. You are not expected to take responsibility for solving their problems on your own.
It is important that when supporting fellow colleagues or students to establish clear and appropriate boundaries, as this helps protect both you and the person you are supporting. Consider the following:
- Being clear about the support you can and cannot provide.
- Avoiding sharing personal contact details, such as private phone numbers or social media accounts.
- Encouraging the person to use established university support services and emergency contacts when needed.
- Recognising when a situation is beyond your knowledge or expertise and seeking guidance or referring to professional support.
- Taking time to step back and reflect after a difficult conversation.
Maintaining healthy boundaries enables you to provide effective support while safeguarding your own wellbeing. Knowing your limits and signposting to specialist services when appropriate is an important part of supporting others safely and responsibly.
If you feel you need urgent help, please visit our Urgent support webpage. This also contains information on other critical helplines you can access.
Other support includes:
- Speaking to your line manager
- Speak to a Colleague Mental Health Champion
- Use the Employee Assistance Programme (SpectrumLife)
- Speak to Occupational Health
For student facing colleagues, a Community of Practice Hosted Network will be available for regular structured group meetings to enable discussion and guidance for any difficult cases where a colleague has had contact with a suicidal student. This will be hosted and led by a Student Wellbeing Practitioner. To access these sessions, please contact the Student Wellbeing Team for more information on wellbeing@exeter.ac.uk. Please do access the above support available if you have concerns.