Hi there,
this is my first post, so a bit nervous, but you all seem very nice here so hoping people can put me at ease about this.
Basically, I was a BA (Hons) Fine Art student and completed my first year with no problems. Then during the summer holidays I had massive repercussions of mental health problems and epilepsy, which meant I could not go back to do my 2nd year that September. I have since been diagnosed with schizophrenia, general anxiety and OCD which have had a massive affect on me (on top of epilepsy). It has been a couple of years since my first year, and I went in to the college to discuss going back as I am in a relatively stable position and want to carry on with my life.
The staff said this is fine and have enrolled me on the course but it is under the condition that I had to apply for DSA to fund a mental health mentor to sit with me during lectures. (I would also get some exciting new equipment and software which will be arriving soon!) It is mainly the mentor/note-taker that I am worried about.
I am incredibly worried about what this entails, whether the mentor is discreet or whether they would have some kind of uniform or ID card that shows they are a mental health worker. As it has been a couple years I will be studying with a completely new group of people and want to be able to make friends, I am very worried that people will wonder what is wrong with me due to this person.
I do think it will be helpful as I did find it very hard to take notes and listen properly at the same time and my attention has gotten even worse since then.. but I am really just wondering how it works and what I can expect.
The mentor is going to be from 'claro learning'. I haven't had one assigned to me but I will apparently meet them a few times before the course starts to check they are ok for me.
I am very pleased that all this support has been put in place, but hoping that someone can tell me what it's going to be like and things like that.
Sorry if i've rambled, hope this doesn't sound trivial or ungrateful!
Thanks,
Kassy x