Pictured (left to right) – The trained student advisors: Shory, Sean and Leon
A project which allows male students to speak to other students to help with their mental health has been launched in the college.
So how does it work? If learners are struggling with an issue in their life and feel like talking about it to another learner, then the college will put them in touch with a trained student support advisor.
It’s open to any male student and the scheme was developed in conjunction with the college’s Mental Health Lead, Alison Cox, after identifying growing pressures on both male students and staff.
Alison explained that the service was created after listening to the experiences of the college community. “If you want to start something that’s going to be beneficial to students’ mental health and their wellbeing, you listen to students, you talk to students, you talk to colleagues,” she said.
Working with the Students’ Association and staff across the college, Alison found that many learners were struggling while staff felt unsure how to respond. With around 17,000 students and over 1,000 staff across the Glasgow Clyde College Campuses, Alison recognised that a traditional support model would not meet demand. Instead, the project focuses on empowering students to support one another.
“I didn’t want people saying, ‘go to Alison because we’re struggling with our mental health’. I’m not here to fix broken people,” she said. “I believe I’m here to help empower students to help themselves.”
The initiative allows trained student facilitators to create safe spaces where peers can speak honestly about their struggles without judgement. Alison said the goal is not to diagnose or treat mental illness but to encourage meaningful conversations and build resilience.
Or, instead, if service users just want to have a chat, a conversation café is being run on a Wednesday afternoon in the Eat on 8 café on the 8th floor of the Cardonald campus (down the right corridor when you exit the lifts).
The project also addresses the stigma men often face when discussing mental health. According to Alison, 73% of suicides in the UK are male, and in Scotland the risk is even higher. “You’re four and a half times more likely to die by suicide as a Scottish male than to die in a road traffic accident,” she said, calling the issue “a public health emergency”.
Early research supports the approach, with Alison noting that 93% of participants in effective peer-support services do not require escalation to emergency NHS support.
Currently running as a test ground at Glasgow Clyde College Cardonald campus, the college hopes to expand the How’s Yerself project to other campuses in the future.
