The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust

The Trust entered into a contract with Denise Meyer of Royal Holloway, University of London in November 2004 to provide a Student Depression Web site aimed primarily at raising awareness.
The specification stresses that the site should be user friendly, contemporary, easy to update and readily accessible to web search engines. The site must recognise the diversity of UK university student populations, should not replicate existing sites and aim to: -

• Make students aware of when they may be suffering from depression
• Clarify depressive influences in their behaviour
• Make students aware of the different forms depression can take
• Help students note the potential danger of suicidal thinking
• Help them dispute negative and suicidal thoughts
• Offer brief real-life examples of what others have found helpful
• Point students to sources of help

The User Group have been recruited and started work to provide input for the site. The team of consultants has been recruited. All being well, the site will be up and running by September 2005 in time for the start of the next academic year but it is hoped to improve on this forecast. The existence of the site will be publicised through the Heads of Student Counselling Services Group and the Association of University and College Counsellors, as well as a number of our supporters who are in a position to help. The first Steering Group meeting was held at Royal Holloway on 28th January 2005 and the next will be held in London on 25th April 2005.
Note that we are in discussion with Students in Mind to determine whether their awareness site should be linked via a message board to their Survivor Board which will provide an email service to students in difficulty from October 2005.
This project has received magnificent support from the Matthew Wood Memorial Fund. With the agreement of the family the home page of the site will include the CWMT logo with “In Memory of Matthew Wood” immediately underneath.

Preparation of the web site is well advanced and should be ready to launch in mid-September. Discussions with StudentsinMind continue, the idea being to provide a link between our awareness site and the email and message board service to be run by StudentsinMind.
The Launch itself will be primarily through counselling service professionals backed by publicity materials, a press release and input to SUBtv. The Trust is most grateful to Ben Walker of Wieden and Kennedy, Pam Vick of Caspia Consultancy and Chalmers Communications for their advice and continuing help.

The web site was launched as planned on 12th September and has been well received by universities and colleges. An article by Denise Meyer, the project lead, will appear in the next newsletter and on this site. The first quarterly report for the period 1st October - 31st December has been received. This indicates that the number of monthly visits averaged 3,536 with the daily average working out at about 116.

The quarterly report for the period 1 January to 31 March 2006 is most encouraging in that the number of monthly visits now averages 6645 (5435, 6151, 8349 respectively) with the daily average working out at about 221. This is good news as the figures indicate that the site is becoming better known but sad in that so many need to seek help.
Plans are now being made for a re-launch in September 2006. In addition we hope to identify a feasible and affordable way of achieving a ‘mid year’ push in February – a crisis time due to exams. In addition, with the help of the National Union of Students we hope to syndicate an article by Denise Meyer to all student newspapers and publications.

Looking back on the first year of operation (October 2005 - September 2006) the monthly average of visits woks out at 5,478 with a daily average of about 180.  It is noticeable that usage of the site has followed the typical demand curve for a UK Counselling Service with the demand dropping over the summer months to shadow the lower level seen at the Christmas break.  February and March 2006 and September 2007 experienced substantially higher figures (6,151, 8,349 and 7,424 respectively).
The site was re-launched in September 2006 with the circulation of posters and our explanatory leaflet send to all NUS, Welfare Officers. The ‘Baked Bean’ poster was re-issued with different wording.  In addition a specially designed ‘stress ball’ was piloted at the University of Leeds at the start of the Academic Year.  They were very popular but expensive.
The highlight of the year was the receipt of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Award for Innovation in 2006.  This has been reported on our Home Page.
Measures are now being taken to update and refresh the site prior to September 2007.  In addition CWMT has employed a PR Agency called Resonate to raise awareness of the site among the student population.  This will   involve a PR boost in February (a recognised stress point) and a re-launch in September.

The site has been re-vamped and updated to include a new three step guide to getting help, additional real life student stories and a 'what site users say' section. A major new addition is a section on Common Student Issues for example accommodation,finances,study and relationships.
The re-vamped site will be launched on 15 October 2007. The Trust will be informing our AUCC and NUS contacts while our new PR agency, Making Waves (kindly introduced by Resonate) will be starting a campaign to raise awareness of the site. This launch is timed to reach students at the beginning of the Academic Year, albeit after Freshers' Week, which is recognised as a key period when depression is more likely than ever to affect students. We are working with Making Waves to explore the possibility of targeting February, another stress point for students.

Student Depression Website. The site is in the process of being further enhanced by adding a BlogRing involving 10 - 12 students who are prepared with suitable support to enter details of their personal experiences over a period of one year. Their entries will be accessible to users of the site on a 'view only' basis. In addition,with assistance from Making Waves Communications we are about to launch a MySpace page aimed at raising awareness of the site.