DSA for mental health issues

No worries. Sorry I didn't answer when you first brought it up on the thread: must have passed me by somehow

No worries. I am absolutely terrified about tomorrow, when i was doing my second year at my previous uni, I had a house and was paying the rent on it, hence my student finance was set as living away from home, however because of all my problems I ended up never moving in and my uni arranged for me to work from home, so I was claiming for living away at uni money when I should have changed it to living at home, and I didnt realise until the end of the year.. and now I feel terrible! But I looked up the difference of the two what I would have got and its pennies... just worried about mentioning it tomorrow when they ask me what I did at my previous uni

Try to relax: assessors are trained to be nice and non-judgmental and I'm sure it will be recognised that you made an innocent mistake when you had far bigger things to worry about

I'm also curious, how would the DSA money be spent in the OPs case?

I too have a disability that effects my speech (I've got offers for a modern language degree), but I don't know whether I'm eligible for DSA as I can't see the university themselves being able to provide much support in my case.

I go to a support group to help control my speech condition, based in London. Would I be able to get any DSA-type support to go to these sessions?

I've been putting off all this but I've finally made a GP appointment on Wednesday to ask for a letter to send off with the application.

It's only my GP and I'm terrified at this part. If I even get assessed, I can't imagine what I'll be going through.

Hi, is it too late to apply for this? I really suffered in my first year of uni with going to lectures and seminars (I can count the amount of times I went to these things on 2 hands), confidence wise I had none and I'd work myself into a mad panic and find myself unable to go. Even things like going to the library petrified me so I would never go it was a weird situation because I was able to cope with a select group of friends I made and I'm sure none of them would guess anything was really wrong but outside of that I was just unable to function.

I haven't had a formal assessment in a couple of years (I was referred to a psychologist a few years back but decided I could 'cope' with my problems) so I was wondering what my options are. Do I have to go to my GP first? Sorry for the long post!

The best first step would be to make an appointment with your GP and explain everything that happened in your first year, asking for a diagnosis and a letter to confirm the diagnosis. Once you've got that, you should be able to contact your uni's disability team for help with applying for DSA

Okay that make sense, thanks for your help. I wouldn't even have considered anything like this without this thread, it's s big relief to see my second year should get a bit easier for me because I do want to do well! Just lots of massive hurdles in my way right now.

Actually you might be able to. I'm getting DSA for physical disability but at my assessment he said that if I ever needed to travel to a hospital appointment during term-time (my hospital is very specialised and I can't transfer to a different one) I can apply to have my travel costs reimbursed. As it happens, all my appointments for the next year will be in holiday time so I'm unlikely to have to use that (not sure I would use it anyway) but if your support group is more regular that might be possible?

There is also loooads of software out there which you might not be aware of which may be able to help with your degree so it is almost certainly worth talking to a DSA assessor anyway?

Aw, thanks for that! My group is every fortnight, so fairly regular. Are you at uni or about to go? Will I be able to see a DSA assessor once I'm at university? Does it cost anything? If not, I may as well enquire.. and as you said, they may suggest something I had never even thought of

My appointment to get a letter from a doctor is today.
My dog's just been rushed to the vets, a "friend" has just sent me the worst text and I have to somehow travel into town on my own to get to the doctors which I've just found out, I'm not going to be seen by my regular GP so I'm going to have to talk about my mental health to a complete stranger.

Today couldn't get any worse.

My appointment to get a letter from a doctor is today.
My dog's just been rushed to the vets, a "friend" has just sent me the worst text and I have to somehow travel into town on my own to get to the doctors which I've just found out, I'm not going to be seen by my regular GP so I'm going to have to talk about my mental health to a complete stranger.

Today couldn't get any worse.

Ah OP I sympathise greatly! I have OCD diagnosed but I also suffer from mood instability which causes obvious problems when at either end of the spectrum. I was diagnosed as bipolar by one psychiatrist, but then another one disagreed and now they're not sure...cheers guys, you really cleared things up for me! So yeah I don't have a firm diagnosis either which makes applying for these things difficult.

Don't feel like a fraud. Just because you did well doesn't mean you aren't entitled to support, it can make things a lot easier for you. I didn't even know I could get DSA until one teacher mentioned it to me.

Get a letter from your psych, I asked my GP for one and he said try to get it from a mental health practitioner as it holds more weight coming from a specialist. As for what to write in the box, I'd just write down your symptoms. The advantage of not having a diagnosis does mean you don't have to declare it to employers when you apply for jobs, which is good.

Good luck OP, I'm not an expert on this but if you want help with it or anything, feel free to drop me a message!

EDIT: After reading some of the replies on here, I'd just like to make it clear that we aren't abusing the system and these things actually help us. When you have a mental health problem, little 'normal' things can be a lot more difficult to you, and for me this is in periods of stress, so moving to university and exams may well be triggers for a lot of people. DSA will just help us when we really need it, we're not just 'getting free stuff' at all, it does benefit us.

Sorry, I totally missed this, sorry I didn't reply sooner

Since you wrote this, I have had my assessment, and its all been cleared and my stuff should be on its way soon.

Just to help others, I will receive:

- Laptop (a Mac in my case as my dept uses Macs) and all the bits that go with it
- Voice recorder
- Printer / Scannner
- Software / Printing / Internet etc allowance
- Notetaking support
- Mentor Support
- Taxi allowance

I applied with a flimsy set of possible diagnosis (since then they have made up their mind!)

Try and be as open as you can with this other GP

I know its incredibly hard and instead of facing everything you just want to go curl up in bed, but think how amazing you would feel if you managed to handle everything by the end of the day! Forget the friend and concentrate on yourself.