Living Black at University 44 7.1 SUMMARY AND KEY FINDINGS Three-quarters of Black students reported some level of impact on their mental health due to racism, with some feeling distressed in their accommodation. This is compounded by a perceived lack of support and difficulties in finding counsellors with either the lived or professional experience to understand the impact of racism on mental health. As a result, students are turning to family and Black peers for support. Although these findings make for difficult reading, it demonstrates the potential impact that accommodation teams can have on the mental health of Black students by implementing effective anti-racist strategies in accommodation. 10 Black students are relying on their friends, relatives and ethnicity-based networks for emotional and psychological support because culturally relevant support isn’t available within mainstream services. Living Black at University 45 In the focus groups, students spoke about the impacts on their mental health using words like “distress” and “vulnerable” to describe living in their accommodation. They spoke about the long-term impact of continually feeling this way, leading to them feeling “withdrawn” and “drained”. Black female students particularly reported that this was exacerbated by them always having to present a demeanour of cheerfulness for fear of being stereotyped as the ‘angry Black woman’. Most of the students in the focus groups had experience of Black peers withdrawing from university because of these feelings. Some identified explicitly that their accommodation was negatively affecting their mental health and wellbeing, or that of others they know. “My friend left the halls even after paying. He would literally run to his room because of the bullying. The only option was to leave.” This can be compounded by a perceived lack of support and feelings that their experiences were not taken seriously. “I was having really bad mental health, and so I’d gone to, we had a university GP if that makes sense, right on campus. I told her my mental health was crap. It felt like the most rushed situation ever, she literally just shooed me off. Then I had a friend like a month later, a white friend that I’d met at university who had had the same situation as me and she explained her process. She had a total different experience. Yes so that’s me like in the same space and time. We’d seen the same GP and it took me almost three years to get in the same position that she got in in like the same week.” The majority of students in the focus groups reported that they knew of no formal support structures for mental health and wellbeing in student accommodation. More widely, it was generally felt that the distress caused by racism was not taken seriously by the counsellors they had access to. Instead they indicated that they have had to rely on friends or family for support. They also expressed a preference for seeking support from peers who had similar lived experiences. Many of the students taking part in the focus groups reported finding support from the Afro- Caribbean Society or other groups of peers with similar lived experience, even though these were not formal support organisations. Some students highlighted that they preferred to go home over the weekend to get support in a positive environment. There has been a widely recognised student mental health crisis over recent years. This crisis is exacerbated among Black students by their experiences of racism. When racism impacts student health and wellbeing, Black students have been unable to find adequate support for these issues. This compounds a lack of trust in those in positions of power to resolve any issues relating to experiences of racism, and students are left feeling that they have no choice but to resolve issues themselves. Students in the focus groups discussed the need for things to change but felt too exhausted to be the force for change themselves: “We feel defeated.”