Canterbury Nightline: What is it and how can it help YOU?

30th November 2018 Chloe Mills 999 Views canterbury, cccu, Kent, mental health, students, UKC, university

Following World Mental Health Awareness day last month, I have spoken to Nightline – a support service available for students here in Canterbury.

Nightline is a non-judgemental listening service for students, run by trained student volunteers. Any student from Canterbury Christ Church University and The University of Kent can take advantage of this service for anything you feel you need advice or help on.

Nightline is part of a bigger scale organisation called the Nightline association which oversees 41 Nightlines at over 100 institutions. Each Nightline runs independently, however the association ensures the service is of a high quality standard for students locally.

Nightline Coordinator, Kerry Sildatke, said “The main difference between Nightline and other support services is that we are open 8pm to 8am when most other services close. This means that we can be there when you need us whether it’s 9pm or 3am.

Also all of our volunteers are specially trained students which means that not only are you talking to someone who has the training to help but they are students so will have a good idea of where you are coming from.”

In 2013 research from Youthsight showed that 32% of students who experience distress, do so at night.

“At the moment we are not used to our full potential as not everyone knows about us. This is something we are trying really hard to change. First years will have been given information about us with their students cards and if they are living in university accommodation will have been given a door hanger. We will also be running more events at CCCU over the coming months.”

“We have been really lucky to have the support of both CCCU and UKC and their respective student unions and Universities have supported us to launch.”

So whether it is exam stress getting you down, you are having problems within your relationship or you cannot see a way forward for whatever reason… do not hesitate to ring Nightline for an anonymous and confidential call to help you.