Introduction
This year, Complex wants to focus on the mental health of its members. The goal is to give members more handles when needing information or help regarding mental health, make them feel safe and welcome, and give them the opportunity to talk about and hopefully improve their wellbeing. In this webpage multiple handles and helplines are worked out. If this information is insufficient for you, don’t hesitate to send an email to secretary@complextilburg.nl
University Helplines
Inside Tilburg University there are many people and instances that are here for helping their students. This goes from information and advice to regular health care and also specifically, mental health care. In this menu the different helplines offered by the university are extended upon.
Information, Help, Advice and Support
For different kinds of advice and guidance during your studies, the university offers advisors and counselors happy to help!
Advice can be about multiple things, like for example about your program, to prepare you for the job market or on a personal level.
As advice and counseling is available on multiple levels, the university developed a Student Support Roadmap where you can check what applies to you and you are led to the right pages. Check this roadmap here!
Especially as a new student, you have a lot of questions about the university or life as a student. To answer a lot of your questions quickly the university has created a quick guide for new students.
This guide contains several elements:
- Program Related Matters
- Introduction Activities
- Campus Facilities
- Computer and IT matters
- Student Support
- Student Life
- Medical Aid
Check out the whole guide here!
If you have to deal with a disability in any way, studying can be more challenging. Tilburg University offers a broad range of facilities to help you with this challenge. you can find out more about this on this page.
These facilities can be very broad, as they contain education and examination arrangements because of an illness or disability.
Also financial assistance or other facilities are included, including materials for students and visitors with a visual, psychical or hearing impairment
Regular Health Care
If you have any physical or mental issue, the first step is to go to a General Practitioner (GP). You also need to visit a GP to get a referral for a specialist.
There are a lot of GP’s spread through Tilburg. On this list you can find all the GP’s of Tilburg. Sometimes the practices of the GP’s are full so you can’t enlist at the GP. You can always ask to visit as a by passer so you can visit the GP without enlisting. To read more about what to expect from a GP visit this page.
Life Threatening Situations
If there is a life treathaning situation, call 112. (if there is an emergency on campus you can call +31 (0)13 – 466 2525)
University Lines
If you want to contact someone from the university in an emergency there are different phone numbers available:
International office (Monday – Friday 8:30-17:00)
- +31 (0)13 – 466 8943
- +31 (0)13 – 466 4657
Outside office hours:
- +31 (0)13 – 466 3000
When you call, ask the name of the person to whom you are speaking, then give that person the infomation of our name, location and a brief explanation of the problem, the help you are requesting and how they can contact you.
University hotline
If you are experiencing personal, mental or emotional problems, the university has a helpline open for all students, which is available daily from 08:00 – 23:00. You can call this on +31 (0)6 28771262
Mental Health Care
The university offers student psychologists to offer short-term, goal-oriented help with all kinds of problems. these problems can be related to your study or personal life.
Some examples of reasons to contact the psychologists are:
- tense and anxious feeling during exams
- not being able to concentrate
- disappointing study results
- stress related to your study
- having the feeling it’s all too much
- etc.
Tilburg University offers various practical help options for managing and preventing problems among students. These are trainings and workshops offered by the University.
Workshops
- Back on track: helping students stuck in their thesis
- Positive Perfectionism: helping students struggling with perfectionism
- Silence meditation: during lunchtime at Tuesday and Thursday, the university offers group meditation open for all students
- Grieving Together Training: this training is meant for students dealing with loss by creating a support group and a training
Trainings in the Sports Center
Some sports or trainings can be very beneficial in dealing with certain issues, some of these given in the Sports Center are:
Maranatha is the University Chaplaincy that helps you to give space to parts of your humanity that tend to be overlooked. The goal is to learn, together with other students, to better understand what you really want and moves you.
The chaplaincy is open for all students, regardless of their background or religion. This is a possible great option when you want to connect with other students and work on that you want or moves you, and make friendships.
The Maranatha building is close to the University Campus (Professor Cobbenhagenlaan 19, 5037 DB, Tilburg) and is open every day (except saturday) from 08:00-18:00.
It is possible to plan a meeting with the chaplain Michiel Peeters, who always is a listening ear for personal talk, for questions, or just for a cup of coffee.
More information can be found here.
If you are experiencing personal, mental or emotional problems, the university has a helpline open for all students, which is available daily from 08:00 – 23:00. You can call this on +31 (0)6 28771262
The university also offers additional help and support with problems you may encounter in every day life in the form of a social worker. The social worker offers psycho social help, advice, support, problem clarification and emotional support.
This for example includes struggling with:
- Cultural change
- Addiction
- Violence
- Unpleasant sexual experiences
- Financial problems and housing
- Sexuality and gender
- etc.
Contacting the social worker is possible via a referral by the Dean of Students or education coordinator, or by sending an email to smw@tilburguniversity.edu. Discuss in the email what you want to discuss and your possible referral.
The Social Worker can offer one-off advice, individual counselling or a referral to other care agencies or long term-help (you would need a referral of your GP as well.
External Helplines
Beside the University instances, there are many other instances that are here to help you in medical issues, when you need a listening ear or if you want to follow some easy tips or a self help program.
Medical Complaints
When you experience a no life-threatening situation, but you feel that a doctor should look into your medical complaints in short notice, you can contact Stichting Huisartsenposten Midden-Brabant. This consists of two emergency locations in the region of Midden-Brabant. More information in English how this works can be found here.
Here General Practitioners work together to guarantee medical care at all times.
You can contact them at +31 (0)85 – 5360 300
The location for the Huisartsenpost is: Lage Witsiebaan 2a, 5042 DA Tilburg
Keep in mind that there are fees when visiting the Huisartsenpost (even the first consult to determine if it’s an emergency or not costs €35)!
(Anonymous) Support Lines
You can discuss anything with Everything okay? Support line. No subject is too strange or weird and no problem is too small or too big. They are there especially for young people aged 18 to 25; every day from 14:00 – 22:00. Chatting and calling (0800-0450) is free and anonymous. Also in the evening and in the weekend, when you have fewer distractions and start worrying.
Examples of thoughts are when you are feeling down, when you have problems at work, with your studies, or at school. When you are having troubles at home. When you are worried about the future. When you are bothered by something and you just need to get it off your chest, or maybe you have no idea why, but you just feel bad.
Go to their website here.
Are you experiencing personal, mental or emotional problems and have nowhere to turn? Please, do not hesitate to anonymously call the Tilburg University special helpline: +31 (0)6 – 28 771 262.
The helpline is available from 08:00 – 23:00 hrs and is intended for all students.
You can contact the helpline anonymously for a personal consultation and a listening ear. Also when you experience complaints of a depressive nature such as sadness and anxiety, panic and anxiety, lethargy and fatigue, sleep problems and stress. The helpline offers support and the help is noncommittal and anonymous.
Self Help
Sometimes help is difficult to attain, or you feel like working it out yourself, then maybe the self-help programs developed by Gezondeboel would be helpful!
Here, you can log in with your Tilburg University username and password and you will be taken to a page with several E-health programs. This is free of charge.
These programs are for example about how to find balance between your study and private life, how to deal with exam stress, living in a different culture, loneliness, or how to feel more relaxed and mindful during your studies.
More information and the link to log in at Gezondeboel can be found at this site.
Trust Persons
The purpose of a trust person is to provide a person to talk to and to provide a safe space to talk about issues or any serious problems, which can be about yourself or others.
The task of the trust person is to make everything open for discussion and to contribute to the solution of certain problems, while simultaneously providing a safe space for everyone.
Information discussed with a trust person will always be confidential.
University Trust Person / Confidential Advisor
Tilburg University has several trust persons / confidential advisors who are here for support and help of all students, staff and guests. They are the point of contact when unacceptable behavior is experienced.
The confidential advisors are open for conversation and everything discussed is always confidential.
Four confidential advisors are currently working at University:
- Kristel van Oosterbosch
- Hein Coppens
- Anke Bisschops (as an external trust person)
- Willem van Genugten (as a confidential advisor on scientific integrity)
You can easily plan a meeting with them by sending them an email, stopping by their office or giving them a call. Contact information can be found here.
Complex Trust Person
This year, the board of Complex will look into a trust person for the association. A concrete thought out plan of a possible trust person is being worked on.
More information and updates will be shared on the socials, member mail, and on this page.
For now, the board is always available for questions, remarks, to have a chat or even just for a cup of coffee.
Safety Word: Angela
At Study Association Complex we highly value your safety.
Based on the global safety initiative ‘Ask for Angela’, Complex decided to start using this safety word as well. When you feel unsafe, vulnerable or threatened can discreetly seek help by approaching venue staff (also at the Boekanier) or board members and asking them for ‘Angela’. This code-phrase will indicate to staff that they require help with their situation and they will try to support and assist them.
We highly value that Complex members feel safe and want to stress that we, as a board, are always available as well when something is wrong. For any questions or remarks about this initiative, please send an email to secretary@complextilburg.nl