SOS-Digital

About the SOS-Digital project

Since 2018, the USC Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation has been developing the Erasmus+ 'SOS-Digital project: Providing Support to Students in Distress', which culminated in 2021 with the development of a digital resource to support the university community in situations of psychological distress. Other European universities involved in this project include Università Degli Studi dice Trento (Italy), a Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu (Poland), and the University of Minho (Portugal), the latter being the coordinating institution of this initiative.

The SOS-Digital Project arises from the need to respond to the growing risk of mental health difficulties that are being detected among university students. In addition to the academic demands of higher education itself, higher education involves a series of changes that can overwhelm the integration resources of young people, especially in the case of foreign students, who often come alone to a country and a university that they do not know. Faced with this reality, it is essential to inform and offer psychological assistance resources for students, as well as to inform teaching and administration staff about basic strategies in order to react to emergency situations in the most appropriate and empathetic way possible.

The technical staff of international projects of the Centre for Scientific and Technological Support (CACTUS), together with a group of researchers from the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology of the USC, developed an online protocol to help students in states of psychological distress. The protocol includes videos and a didactic digital guide with the aim of informing the university community of this new reality and showing ways of reacting and finding solutions to situations that can generate emotional stress.

USC can help you feel better

If you are a USC student and you have psychological problems that interfere with your academic performance, you can contact atencionpsicoloxica [at] usc.gal (atencionpsicoloxica[at]usc[dot]gal) or fill in the form provided.

In other cases you can contact:

1. Public resources: ask for an appointment with your primary care doctor so that they can refer your consultation to specialists if they consider it appropriate.
2. Private resources: on this link you can consult a list of psychology professionals practising in Galicia.
3. If you find yourself in an emergency or risky situation, please use the following emergency contacts.