Frequently Asked Questions

Anything where you would value talking to an aerospace student peer. This may cover topics such as: your psychological well being; student life at college; stressors and changes in your personal life; relationship problems; fatigue; bereavement; concerns about the well-being of another student; financial problems; health concerns, etc.

The trained peers are there for you, and your well-being as a person and an aerospace student. While they cannot act on your behalf, provide expert opinion, advise or even "fix" your problem, what makes them superbly qualified is that they are students like you. They have all had further/advanced training in supporting fellow students and they in turn are supported by a mental health professional, if required. UpLift peers are willing to listen to you, understand your challenges and help you figure it out (or at least point you in the right direction).

Like most things, it is better to deal with problems and talk to others before they overwhelm us. Putting your troubled or painful thoughts and feelings into words and by explaining it to someone you trust (and who is good at listening!) can often help you better understand what you are experiencing and perhaps gain a better perspective on the issue. Sometimes our worst fears don't sound as scary or as impossible as when we have said it out aloud to that trusted person in the right setting.

Things needn't get to a crisis point before you contact us. In fact, the sooner you do, the better we can support you.

Occasionally though, life can feel especially tough and overwhelming, and as a peer support network, that is what we are here for.

Once you have requested contact, you will receive a message confirming your request. The first suitably available peer to pick it up will text you and arrange a suitable time to talk on the phone. In arranging this, please ensure you will have the time and privacy to talk, on your own, to the peer.

The initial conversation will be to understand how they can best support you, or which direction to point you in. You may have a specific request for guidance or information, or you may be seeking support on a particular challenge you are facing. Either way, we are here for you!

It is always better for people themselves to make contact with this service. However, sometimes they are too fearful to do so, or have lost perspective on the impact that this is having on their well-being or those they are studying with.

If you are worried about your fellow student, we suggest discussing this through with a peer who will help you figure how best you might be able to support them.

While we aim to respond to contact requests as quickly as possible, we are not set up to deal with urgent requests or emergencies. If you think that your own (or someone else's) well-being or safety is in immediate danger, please contact UND Crisis Resources.

If something isn't working for you, the only way we can fix it is if you let us know. Please direct your complaint to us here and be assured that we will deal with them in a discrete and appropriate manner. Equally, if you would rather direct it elsewhere, please send your complaint to the designated faculty member.

Let us know if you have a specific request in the contact form. As far as we can, we will seek to accommodate your preference. You can also mention this in the first conversation with your peer following your contact request. While this may not always be possible, we will let you know if it isn't. You can be assured though that our peers are trained to listen, be human, and most importantly, not to judge or make assumptions about those they are supporting.

All we want is a first name (it doesn't even need to be your real name if you would prefer) and a contact number. We need no other details other than any specific requests that you might have.

It takes courage to ask for help, and as this is a peer support program, we want your first contact to be with our trained peer, and not a call center operator or voicemail service. Given that, our peers are students too. It is not always possible to immediately connect you to one. However, they will do their best to respond to you as soon as is reasonable, and within your requested timeframe.

You can help us identify the level of need from your request:

If you request to be contacted within 24 hours, we will assume your need is imminent, although not urgent. However, you would prefer to talk to someone sooner rather than later, and we will respond to you within daytime hours.
If you request to be contacted within 48 hours, we will assume that whilst your request is important, you are happy for us to contact you during daytime hours, Monday through Friday.

Remember, if your need is urgent or an emergency you will get the best options of support at UND Crisis Resources.

If you know the peer (once they have made contact with you) and would prefer not to proceed, or you have already started and would like a different peer, you have two options:

let them know that you would prefer to speak to someone else; you will find them very understanding
let the administrator know and they can reallocate a different peer to you

After arranging a suitable time to talk with you, the first conversation with your peer will be to establish how they can best help you, either by supporting you directly or pointing you in the right direction. Your peer will listen to you without judgment and give you as long as it takes to explain and talk through your concerns.

No. As this is a peer support service, the aim is to support you make decisions and take action in resolving a particular problem or issue you are dealing with. Them doing it for you is seldom a wise solution.

Please remember this is peer support service, and not an expert information or advice center. Your peer will be happy to share what they know and help where they can.

This service works best on the telephone. It would not be advisable to meet your peer in person, however well-intended this might be. This is because:

we want to respect your, and our peer's, privacy and boundaries; you might study or socialize in similar settings
others may see and overhear you
it is easier to arrange a time when you are both available to talk

Your peer is supported by a UND mental health professional especially allocated to this service, when required. They, in turn, can advise the peer of a range of resources and channels available to you as a UND student. If for some reason your peer can't help you, they will do their best to find out or direct you to someone who can.

As we are in the beta stage of setting this up, you may not immediately receive this confirmation via text. However, when you click the submit button there will be a message confirming receipt on the screen. If you haven't heard anything within the requested time, please assume we haven't received it.

Please contact us. We will get back to you as soon as possible. However, it may be during office hours that we do.

Apologies. If you have a question, we'd love to hear it and we will do our best to answer it.

This FAQ is only as good as the questions posed. Please send your question to us.

Yes. Whilst it is operationally accountable to the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences at UND, the details of individual users are strictly confidential and are protected in the same way medical records would be protected.

From time-to-time our peers may talk to the UND designated mental health professional about the cases they support. They do this for their own development and learning as a peer. In these circumstances, they will never reveal the identity of any of their cases.

If they need to speak to this mental health professional about your specific case (for information, guidance, or direction) they will keep your identity confidential. Where it is unavoidable, they will only reveal your identity with your consent.

As in every professional setting, there is also a process in place, if in the opinion of the mental health professional, there is an immediate and significant threat to yourself or the safety of others through what you tell us or how you behave, they are obliged to take the appropriate and proportionate action to minimise this risk. This only happens in very rare instances and will follow a well established protocol with your (and others') safety at heart.

We take your confidentiality very seriously. However, if you tell us anything that gives us demonstrable concern about your safety or anyone else's, just as in other healthcare settings, we are ethically and legally obliged to waive your confidentiality. In this extremely rare event, your peer will follow an established protocol of contacting their clinical supervisor and together deciding on the most appropriate course of action. However, they will always work with you first to figure out a way in which you and others can be safely protected, and with your consent.

We keep a protected and encrypted record of your contact details. It is the only way we can connect you with our peer! In addition, we collect general trend data (website usage, volume of contacts, etc.).

Never individual names.

Once you have made contact with your peer, no other data will be collected or stored about you.

As is common practice with most data protection practices, if you would like to see what data we do have with regards to you, please contact us and we will send you the address to which you can direct your enquiry and the process in which we can verify your identity.

Unless you are vaguely aware of each other prior to using this service, your peer will have only ever spoken to you on the phone. If you realize that you know each other, your peer will greet and acknowledge you as fellow students normally would - in a friendly and collegiate way. They will make no reference to the fact that they are supporting, or have supported, you via this service.

It would not be advisable to discuss anything regarding your situation in this setting. This is because:

we want to respect your privacy and boundaries
others may overhear you
as you both are students at UND (even if you are in a class together or find yourselves socialising in a group) it would be the wrong setting to discuss these topics