Close
Our team provide a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space in which you can discuss any wellbeing, mental health or disability concerns that may be affecting your ability to study.
Ask a question via askUCL
To ask our team a question, use our student enquiry portal, askUCL. You can first use the FAQ search to see if your question is answered, if not, you can click 'Log an enquiry' to get a response from us. This is also how you book appointments via the 'Contact Disability & Neurodiversity or Mental Health & Wellbeing services' FAQ.
All of our support services are free of charge and open to all UCL students.
Appointment open hours
Both same day and pre-booked full advisory appointments are available between the following times (UK time), Monday to Friday:
General open times
- 10 AM to 12 PM.
- 1 PM to 4 PM.
If you cannot make these times
For situations outside of your control, we may be able to arrange out of hours appointments for you between these times:
- From 09:00 AM.
- From 17:00 with the last appointmenting ending at 19:00.
Appointments are available throughout the year, except for UCL closure days.
We will always try to offer you an appointment during your preferred timeslot, however, appointments will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Always provide your availability to help facilitate faster bookings.
Appointment types
Our same day appointments allow you to speak to a Disability and Neurodiversity or Mental health adviser on the day for help and support.
Same day appointments are only available via:
- Telephone.
- MS Teams (via video, voice only or chat).
Just let us know what you prefer when booking your appointment. For face-to-face, please book a full advisory appointment.
Same day appointments are generally 15-20 minutes and can only be booked on the same day. Appointments are made via askUCL booking form and cannot be made over the phone.
If you need support with a more complex enquiry, please contact us to pre-book a 45-60 minute full advisory appointment.
They are available via:
- Face-to-face at the Bloomsbury Student Centre or the UCL East Marshgate building.
- Telephone.
- Microsoft Teams (via video, voice only or chat).
Provide your preference and availability when booking
- Let us know your time and date availability for the next 2 weeks and your preferred contact method.
- Your appointment will then be scheduled as soon as possible with a waiting time of no longer than two weeks.
- Give a brief explanation about what you’re experiencing when requesting an appointment so we can make sure the right support is there for you.
Appointments are made via askUCL appointment booking form and cannot be made over the phone.
Accessibility requirements for your appointment
If you have any accessibility requirements for your appointment, please let us know. We are happy to accommodate your needs.
- Interpretive service for the appointment
Deaf students are encouraged to use Relay UK to aid you in the appointment. It is a free service to help deaf people and those who have hearing loss or have a speech impairment to communicate over the phone.
Special requests about your adviser
Students can request a BAME (Black, Asian or minority ethnic) team member who they may feel has better understanding of their cultural identity. Students can also request a male or female adviser, and/or an adviser who is LGBTQ+ or has specialist training in supporting students from the LGBTQ+ community – simply let us know when you contact the team.
What happens in your appointment?
Guided by you, our advisers and coordinators can:
Help you access reasonable adjustments
We can explore the potential impact that your disability or condition may have on your studies and look at what reasonable adjustments can be applied in your Summary of Reasonable Adjustments (SoRA). We can also help you to apply for certain exam adjustments.
Learn about reasonable adjustments to your studies.
Refer you to specialist support
You can have specialist one-to-one support to help you mitigate negative impacts on your studies. We can assign you to specialist tutors who can assist students with specific conditions such as Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASCs) and Specific Learning Differences (SpLDs).
Learn more about Specialist study skills.
Refer you to other services
We can signpost you to other support services, including referrals to psychological or counselling support via the Counselling Services.
This includes providing support and appropriate external referrals if you've been affected by domestic or sexual violence.
Provide general support related to your disability or condition
We can provide information and advice if you're considering an interruption of study for health or wellbeing reasons, including return to study support.
We can also assist you with starting your application for disability funding, such as Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA).
The above list is not exhaustive, check out more support we provide.
When we might refer you to another service
Please be aware that this service does not provide counselling, other therapeutic or 1st responder support in a mental health crisis or emergency.
Our team of advisers and coordinators focus on the impact of your personal circumstances on your ability to study. Where your needs are outside of our expertise, our advisers will signpost you to other relevant services.
- Find out more about counselling from SSWS's Counselling Services.
- Find out more about what to do in a mental health crisis.
- Find out more about UCL's Student Funding Advisers.
- Find out more about making an enquiry to UCL Accommodation.
- Find out more about the Advice Service in Students' Union UCL.
- How our appointments differ from counselling
Our appointments are not the same as therapeutic counselling and you should not consider attending an appointment as equivalent to attending a counselling session.
Appointments with the Disability and Neurodiversity and Mental Health and Wellbeing teams are for providing supportive practical advice, signposting, and implementing any reasonable adjustments that may be required for your studies.
If one of our advisers has recommended that you access long-term counselling, then we advise you to initially speak to your GP, as they’ll be in the best position to suggest effective support for any issues you may be facing.
Counselling support is also available through our Counselling Services team here at UCL.
- Ensuring confidentiality
Before an appointment with a member of our team, please consider the points below to help you make sure confidentiality can be maintained.
- Have the call or video consultation in a place where it's unlikely that others will overhear your conversation.
- Where possible, use written text if this is difficult to ensure.
- Use headphones instead of having the call audio coming out of laptop/PC speakers to prevent people being able to overhear the responses from the person you are speaking to.
- If you want to talk about someone who may hear the conversation, it is advisable to change their name and let the person you are speaking to know you are doing this through text, so you can speak freely.
- Do not print any text from your online consultation, but instead save it to a secure document on your device, to limit the chances of others viewing it.
Tell us about your disability or long-term health condition
If you feel that you might have a disability (including mental health or a neurodivergence/Specific Learning Difference like dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism or ADHD) but have not received a diagnosis, please contact us through askUCL so that we can advise you further.