Mental Health Awareness Week | In a conversation with Bristol Nightline

Of Emily Brewster, Third year, history

Coinciding with the start of Academic Assessment and Mental Health Awareness Week, Epigram spoke to Bristol nightline – the confidential, non-counseling listening service – to find out about the charity’s services, what it’s like to be a Nightline volunteer and the importance of mental wellbeing during exam season.

From its beginnings in 1970 at the University of Essex, Nightline has grown into a nationwide organisation. Started in a disused hut on the edge of the Essex University campus, it now boasts over 2,000 volunteers and supports over 1.5 million students.

The charity provides support to students between 20:00 and 08:00, when most other tailored services for students are down. The service takes an anonymous, non-judgmental and non-consulting approach, training its volunteers to follow its mantra: “We’ll listen, not lecture.”

Bristol’s own branch currently has around 100 student volunteers, the highest number in years.

Fay is a fourth year student who has volunteered with the service since her freshman year. Talking to Epigramit outlines key practices of the organization.

Unique to Nightline is the “peer-to-peer support service,” which allows callers to talk to volunteers who are facing similar struggles. Fay explains how this sense of shared experience can make the process less daunting for potential callers:

“We may not be able to understand everything someone is going through, but it’s nice to know that person is on a similar level and from the same community as you.”

“They know they will only get a kind, empathetic person who will give them space to talk about their feelings.”

The total anonymity of both the listening volunteers and the caller provides a completely safe space for individuals to vocalize any issue, big or small.

Fay jokingly describes volunteering at Nightline as “living a secret life.” Working through the night in groups of three, student volunteers take phone calls and answer instant messaging, another option available to those seeking support. Usually wearing pyjamas, volunteers keep themselves busy during their shift by watching movies, continuing their classes and developing close friendships with other listeners.

Spending these intense periods together creates a community of volunteers and a “very family environment” that is based on support and camaraderie. It was within this community that Fay formed some of her closest university friendships.

Outside of listening hours, Nightline organizes social events and pub crawls where volunteers meet other like-minded people of all ages and walks of life.

Although no two nights are the same, Fay marks two periods in the university calendar when the volume of calls increases: Freshers’ Week and exam season.

While academic stress predictably becomes a concern for university students, it can also exacerbate other problems people face juggling their studies.

“We’re trying to help people come to their own conclusions”

The focus on non-consulting support makes it unique in its field, meaning that Nightline callers will not actively discourage someone from acting in a certain way.

When asked if this is difficult to implement when dealing with calls of a more serious nature, Fay argued that this approach actually encourages people to seek support and open up more:

“They know they’re just going to get a kind, empathetic person who will give them space to talk about their feelings, rather than someone saying ‘okay, I want you to do this or that.’

Rather than offering solutions, Fay explains, “We try and help people come to their own conclusions by exploring each avenue.”

While this can be challenging, this listening-oriented practice gives people space to just talk—an invaluable gift for improving mental well-being.

While embracing Nightline’s non-consultative approach, Fay offered some pearls of wisdom for maintaining a good mental state during stressful assessment times. The most important point came down to this: “keep talking.”

Fay encourages people to call even with good news or to discuss an uneventful day. She points out that talking, regardless of mood, is important to staying mentally healthy.

Fay describes how wonderful volunteering with Nightline has been for her own personal development – ​​especially applying the skills she learned to help those around her and herself. She went on to explain that being a Nightline volunteer puts your own mental well-being in perspective, describing how listening to colleagues who are dealing with stress and worries of all kinds can make their own struggles feel less isolated.

Fay also explains how volunteering at Nightline builds skills to help you support your loved ones:

“Often you feel like you have to help them and heal them, but sometimes the best thing is to sit, listen, empathize.”

The charity is always looking for more student volunteers to help provide confidential and non-judgemental support. Bristol Nightline has an upcoming summer training cycle for new volunteers which will take place on 1st and 2nd June.

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Applications for this scheme close on 24 May. Nightline details are on the back of each U-Card and can also be found here: https://bristol.nightline.ac.uk/

Featured image: Bristol Nightline