Any information you share with us is stored in line with the Student Support Services privacy policy. Anything you send us in writing, for instance emails and supporting documents, will be held on secure systems and only viewed by staff in Student Support Services who are involved in supporting you. Our staff will also keep notes following any verbal discussions, which will also be kept on our secure systems. Our records are kept for 6 years after students graduate, and would be deleted at that point.
Confidentiality and information sharing
We are a confidential service, so as a general rule we won't share information about you without your direct consent. However, there are circumstances where we need to share some information in order to support you effectively. For instance, to make any adjustments like exam arrangements or coursework extensions, we need to put in place an Inclusive Support Plan (ISP) which will be shared with your academic staff. You will need to agree to our Confidentiality and Information Sharing Policy for us to put an ISP in place. This gives us permission to share necessary information within the university for the purpose of putting agreed support in place. We will include you in any discussions, and you can discuss any concerns around information sharing with an adviser.
The amount of information shared on an ISP is still up to you. We have to include information about specific adjustments required, otherwise staff won't be able to implement them, but the rest of the information is up to you. Some students like their academic staff to be aware of their diagnoses and may want to include specific information about how they are impacted. Other students prefer not to include any information other than the adjustments. If you want to review the information included on your ISP, either contact your named adviser directly or email mentalhealthadvice@brookes.ac.uk.
If you want to withdraw your consent, please contact us at mentalhealthadvice@brookes.ac.uk. Please be aware this may affect our ability to put reasonable adjustments in place.
In rare circumstances, we may need to share information about you without your permission. These circumstances are:
- if we believe that there is a serious risk to your safety or the safety of another person, we may contact University colleagues or external services such as a GP or mental health team. Whenever possible we will discuss this with you and seek your permission to share information, but in some circumstances we may have to proceed without your consent.
- when the member of staff/service could be liable to civil or criminal court procedure if the information is not disclosed, for instance if you informed us that you were involved in criminal activity, knew about an act of terrorism, etc.
Decisions to disclose information without your consent will be authorised by a senior member of staff within Student Services. Any information that is shared would be kept to a minimum, and shared only on a ‘need to know’ basis. A record of the disclosure will be retained as part of your case file which you are entitled to see in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act.
Sometimes students want someone else to be involved with discussions on their behalf. For instance, a parent, a leaving care worker, a support worker, etc. To give us permission to do this, you would need to send us an email from their Oxford Brookes University email account and you must include the full name(s) of anyone you would like us to be able to speak to. This email can be sent to an adviser directly, or to mentalhealthadvice@brookes.ac.uk. You can withdraw your consent at any time, by emailing us or speaking with an adviser. This permission would apply to the Mental Health Advice Team only, and would not cover other areas of the university.
This can be useful in some circumstances, for instance if a student is particularly unwell and not currently able to speak with staff. However, it's important to be aware that there are still limits on what we can share with others. Even if we have permission to speak with someone else, our primary contact is always with you, the student. It's important that you are aware of anything being discussed, so if someone else is contacting us on your behalf we would typically ask that they copy you into the email. If there are any decisions that need to be made, for instance changes to your ISP, choices about accommodation, etc., we will need to have some contact with you even if someone else is included in the discussion. This is because we need to know that any choices are being made by you.
Sometimes we are asked to include a parent or someone else in all of our emails with a student. This is not typically possible, though we can include others in discussions around a specific issue as needed.
Some courses, for instance Nursing or Primary Teacher Education, require students to be cleared by Occupational Health in order to undertake placements. According to the conditions of admission to these programmes, you are responsible for disclosing to faculty any health issues that might (even temporarily) have a bearing on your ability to operate safely in the working environment. If you might need any reasonable adjustments in the workplace, Occupational Health can make appropriate recommendations.