When your mentee needs additional support

Only mentors with specialised training are able to diagnose mental health issues and, if appropriate, help the mentee to manage them. To play “amateur therapist” is unethical and dangerous. Therefore, as a mentor:

• How do you recognise signs of a mental health issue?
• And how do you make the decision whether to continue to mentor, if the mentee has a mental health problem?

Recognising the symptoms of mental health issues

Signs that a mentor can look out for include:

• Repeated irrational behaviour
• Strong emotional outburst (well beyond normal reactions to a stimulus)
• If you feel trapped into a recurrent cycle of conversation that doesn’t go anywhere
• Physical signs (tics, avoidance of normal eye connection, abnormally quiet speech, generally depressed posture and so on)
• Constant procrastination
• Strong mood swings
• Refusal to acknowledge problems that urgently need addressing.

These symptoms don’t necessarily mean that the person has a mental illness. However, they may be enough to cause the mentor to seek advice via their AFP or talk to their mentee about seeking some therapeutic support.

Should you continue to mentor?

If the mentor feels there is a mental health issue, the mentor must:

• Support the mentee to seek professional advice if this is possible, or raise their concern with their own AFP
• Remain very conscious of boundaries and review constantly whether to suspend the mentoring relationship
• Remember that you are not responsible for the mentee and cannot resolve their problems for them.

If you have any concerns about your mentee, then please go to your own AFP for advice.