While many students are looking forward to spending quality time at home with family this Christmas, reports suggest that as many as one in three will spend the festive season in student accommodation.

And that’s sparked fears about their mental health.

Lichfield mental health counsellor Sheila McMahon had the following advice to help students to reduce feelings of loneliness over Christmas and New Year, especially with the growth of the Omicron variant and some Covid restrictions coming back into force.

Many options to combat loneliness

“Christmas can be a difficult time for many, especially students when they have been through so much uncertainty,” said Sheila, who gives talks on mental health to educators across the region.

“Loneliness can be a big problem and it’s important that this is recognised with many options to combat loneliness.

“You can find social groups through social media, or you can try groups like ‘Meet up’ and ‘Spice’.”

Sheila, CEO of Mind Management for You, added: “Despite the movies, not everyone wants to go home for Christmas as people in families can have very different views and Christmas at home can actually be very difficult time with their families for some people.

“Some students may embrace that they have the perfect excuse to not go home and decide to have a great time with their mates instead.

“Despite all this uncertainty, you can decide to focus on what you can do and the days you are not feeling ok – to be ok with not feeling ok’.”

Mental health advice videos to support students

Sheila also has lots of mental health advice videos on her You Tube Channel, which includes a regular Tip of the Week at www.youtube.com/c/SheilasYouTubeChannel like her How to manage negative thoughts video here How to manage negative thoughts – Tip of the Week – YouTube

You can follow Sheila for more on social media or visit www.mindmanagementforyou.com