Jennifer Montgomery
Team Lead Counselling (Mental Health and Outreach Coordination) Student Counselling, Student Services
Mental health coordinators
If you’re concerned about a student’s wellbeing or mental health, you can talk to one of our mental health coordinators for guidance and advice.
Our mental health coordinators are registered mental health professionals. They provide consultation and guidance for staff with concerns for a student who may be highly distressed, presenting with concerning behaviour or serious health and wellbeing concerns.
The mental health coordinators can offer guidance around pathways into Mauri Ora or other university and external support services, help with making a plan to support a students safety and wellbeing, liaison with external mental health services where required, meeting with students to provide orientation to the service and support with transitions into and out of the service.
Concerns for imminent safety
If there are immediate safety concerns for you or another student please call police on 111. If you or another student require urgent mental health support please phone Whakarongorau 24/7 on 0800 745 477, or visit your local hospital emergency department.
Same-day counselling
To make a same-day appointment with a counsellor please call the Mauri Ora Student Health and Counselling’s support team on +64 4 463 5308 or email Mauri Ora at mauriora@vuw.ac.nz.
When to contact a mental health coordinator
Contact a mental health coordinator if you are:
- a staff member seeking guidance on responding to a student in distress
- a student or family member concerned about another student in distress
- an external provider wishing to let us know about a student who may require counselling support once they start University studies.
Recognise, respond, refer training for staff
The mental health coordinators co-facilitate the Recognise, Respond, Refer trainings for University staff supporting students in distress alongside the Student Interest and Conflict Resolution team. If you would like to book training for your team please contact osharna.melling@vuw.ac.nz.
Meet the team
Emily Stanworth-Miller
Mental Health Coordinator Student Counselling, Student Services
Shardul Abhyankar
Mental Health Coordinator Student Counselling, Student Services
Privacy
The mental health coordinators abide by the Mauri Ora privacy and confidentiality agreement. This tells you what you need to know about how we record, store, and dispose of student health information.
We take student confidentiality seriously. If we have concerns about a student's risk of harm to themselves or someone else, we have a duty of care to take appropriate action which may include contacting relevant people involved in their care. In situations where we are very concerned about safety as above, we seek consent from students to share their information where possible and encourage staff members to also try to seek consent when sharing a student's information.