‘What happens then?’: A 6-month follow-up on students accessing a university counselling service

Introduction

University psychological counselling services represent a frontline defence to detect, treat or refer students with a wide range of (clinical and non-clinical) difficulties. Nevertheless, only few studies describe their impact on academic self-efficacy and report follow-up data. Evidence on students' actual access to further psychological support in times of hardship is also scant and most needed. This study aimed to fill these gaps, exploring the stability of improvement in clinical conditions in a wide sample of university students and reporting post-intervention referrals to mental health services.

Methods

In a longitudinal study, 218 students who accessed a psychological counselling service at the University of Milano-Bicocca between 2015 and 2019 completed an assessment at the beginning (T0), conclusion (T1) and 6 months after (T2) a brief cognitive behavioural intervention. The assessment included psychological symptoms, general distress, emotion dysregulation and academic self-efficacy. Information about students' choices to continue a psychological intervention in other services was also collected and contrasted with the counsellor's indication.

Results

At follow-up, the improvement in academic self-efficacy remained stable, with more than 60% of the students maintaining a reliable clinical change, and nearly half of them reporting having accessed (or being willing to contact) a mental health service outside the university services.

Conclusion

These findings highlight the key role of counselling services in addressing students' distress and academic performances in the long term and in building bridges with mental health services outside the university system for students who need longer and specialised treatment.