Students presenting to emergency departments with mental health problems are waiting up to 10 hours for an assessment, New Zealand universities say. (File photo)

Universities say they are facing a "here-and-now tsunami of need that is not being met" by community and district health board services.

Students who arrive at emergency departments with mental health concerns are waiting up to 10 hours for assistance, while others are put at risk by being sent back to their university halls by specialist mental health services, umbrella group Universities New Zealand (UNZ) has told the Government's mental health inquiry.

Are you a student struggling to access mental health services? Email adele.redmond@stuff.co.nz

Its submission said "unacceptably long" wait times to access support – in particular, a seven-year waitlist for assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and issues accessing treatment for gender dysphoria, where an individual identifies as a gender other than their biological sex – were resulting in severe depression and suicide attempts. The official follow-up time for after assessment is three months.

New Zealand Union of Students' Association (NZUSA) president Jonathan Gee said the wait times often discouraged students from seeking help in the first place, and could convince those who were mentally unfit to study to stay in university to access help.

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University health centres, which lacked the expertise to deal with complex cases like eating disorders, post-traumatic stress and suicidal thoughts, were being used as a "substitute for underfunded community mental health" services, and communication from district health boards in crisis situations "often does not occur or is not timely", UNZ's submission said.

Executive director Chris Whelan said the growing number of students needing mental health support in recent years had become untenable. The transition from secondary to tertiary education was a vulnerable period, especially for those who were living away from home, experimenting with drugs and alcohol, or taking on financial and other responsibilities for the first time.

STUFF NZUSA president Jonathan Gee says students "want to be able to have these conversations with university staff and lecturers".

"More students are presenting down the lower end of the spectrum [of mental health issues]. That might be more comfort with reporting or it could be that they are having these problems more frequently."

In 2013, universities spent $14.9 million on counselling services. By 2016, that cost had grown to $17.3m, Whelan said.

"There is a broader health system that has its own resourcing challenges ... but the hand-offs are not very tidy. It's not clear when the public health system should take on these cases."

He said the student services levies that fund university health services – usually several hundred dollars per student – had become a "hard cap" on how much support universities could provide.

SUPPLIED Chris Whelan, chief executive of Universities New Zealand, says more students are needing help for mental health issues. Universities' spending on counselling grew $2.4m between 2013 and 2016.

Gee did not want to cast blame on universities for the health system's shortcomings but said there was a tendency to "outsource" the problem, rather than focus on student wellbeing on campus as a whole.

"You can't really see it when you're stuck in a bubble and you have got these deadlines and you don't know where you're going with your life. It can seem a bit much, and we want to be able to have these conversations with university staff and lecturers."

Despite contributing to UNZ's submission, the universities Stuff contacted – Auckland, Victoria, Canterbury and Otago – all declined to comment on the pressures their health services were facing. A spokeswoman for the University of Canterbury said it did not want to be "singled out".

Auckland, Capital and Coast, and Canterbury district health boards declined, or did not respond to, requests for comment.

The submission said district health boards lacked "professional respect" for university health centres' referral teams.

WHERE TO GET HELP

Lifeline (open 24/7) - 0800 543 354

Depression Helpline (open 24/7) - 0800 111 757

Healthline (open 24/7) - 0800 611 116

Samaritans (open 24/7) - 0800 726 666

Suicide Crisis Helpline (open 24/7) - 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO). This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.

Youthline (open 24/7) - 0800 376 633. You can also text 234 for free between 8am and midnight, or email talk@youthline.co.nz

0800 WHATSUP children's helpline - phone 0800 9428 787 between 1pm and 10pm on weekdays and from 3pm to 10pm on weekends. Online chat is available from 7pm to 10pm every day.

Kidsline (open 24/7) - 0800 543 754. This service is for children aged 5 to 18. Those who ring between 4pm and 9pm on weekdays will speak to a Kidsline buddy. These are specially trained teenage telephone counsellors.

Your local Rural Support Trust - 0800 787 254 (0800 RURAL HELP)

Alcohol Drug Help (open 24/7) - 0800 787 797. You can also text 8691 for free.

For further information, contact the Mental Health Foundation's free Resource and Information Service (09 623 4812).