Open Door

Open Door is a team of Mental Health Practitioners and Student Wellbeing Officers providing support to registered students experiencing psychological or mental health difficulties. 

How do I access Open Door support?

Open Door is not an emergency service; if your situation requires an immediate response, please visit our in crisis now page. 

To make an appointment with Open Door, complete the Open Door referral form, and we will endeavour to contact you within two working days.

Open Door referral form

If you feel unable to complete the form please let us know by email opendoor@york.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0)1904 322140. 

Feedback 

If you would like to give any feedback on your experiences with Open Door please do contact the Operations Manager, Laila Hamade, laila.hamade@york.ac.uk.

Opening times (via Zoom, phone and email)

In semester

  • Monday, 9am to 8pm
  • Tuesday, 9am to 6pm
  • Wednesday, 9am to 8pm
  • Thursday, 9am to 6pm
  • Friday, 9am to 5pm

Out of semester

  • Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm 

What happens when we receive your form?

Your form will be reviewed within one working day, and you will be contacted by your preferred method within two working days by a Practitioner who will support you from that point.

The Open Door Team is made up of Mental Health Practitioners and Wellbeing Officers, and we always try to allocate you the Practitioner that best fits your needs. Most students are offered an appointment by the Practitioner, who will work with you over one to six sessions. Sometimes students are offered other support, which may be detailed self-help information, information on workshops and/or courses the University offer.

We always try to offer you an appointment as soon as possible, and normally within two weeks. Your appointment time will also be in relation to your availability. We understand that for some students their academic timetable is busy, therefore an appointment will be scheduled at a time that is convenient for you.

We do offer appointments up to 8pm on Mondays and Wednesdays during semester time if you feel an evening appointment would be more convenient for you. If you are offered an appointment and feel that it is too long to wait, please do email the Practitioner who has contacted you to explain that you would like an earlier appointment, and we may be able to offer you a cancellation.

We aim to offer weekly or fortnightly appointments, however, when appointments are missed or cancelled at short notice, these appointments can not be re-booked and go unused. This means that the waiting time for appointments increases dramatically for other students. Please can we ask that if you no longer need your appointment or if you're unable to make it for any reason, that you cancel your appointment with as much notice as possible.

What happens at your first appointment?

You will be asked to complete a consent form. The Open Door Practitioner will arrange a convenient date and time for your appointment.

Open Door appointments are normally between 30 minutes and one hour long. If your appointment is a telephone or Zoom appointment, please treat it as if you would be seeing a Practitioner in person, so find a private space where to feel comfortable and will not be overheard to allow yourself the space and time to talk, and to begin to work with your Practitioner to explore what is concerning you.

Confidentiality

Open Door is a confidential service and we will not advise family or friends of your registration. We will discuss data protection and confidentiality in full at your initial appointment.

Policy statement on confidentiality and data protection

Every effort should be made to discuss with a student their preferences about what information about them may be given to whom and to keep them informed as to the use of their information and the decisions and action taken in respect to them. The University Data Protection Policies then apply to the preferences of the student, which may normally only be overridden if there is judged to be significant risk of self-harm or harm to others.