While covid restrictions are being increasingly scaled back, a group of students still suffers daily from their covid infection. Via the University Chaplaincy’s long covid support centre, students can share tips and offer each other support.

It all started in May 2022, with a request by an academic counsellor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies asking whether the University Chaplaincy could help out a couple of students with long covid. The first meeting was attended by around ten students with varying experiences. Among them were students who could only lie in bed for months at a time, but also students with less severe physical complaints and concentration issues.

‘After that, more and more people kept signing up for that group’, says student pastor Marieke Fernhout. ‘After the summer, we had three more online meetings, during which we discussed what the university could do and what needs students have.’

Twenty students

Meanwhile, twenty students are currently member of the support group, which is more than all other student groups of the University Chaplaincy combined. It is difficult to generalise this group, says Fernhout. ‘The issues are diverse, but their study programmes as well. There are programmes where, as a student, you are doing lab work while standing, which can be more physically tiring than lots of reading.’

The questions students with long covid have are also different. While some want to know more about financial reliefs, others have a need for an incentive-free space at their programme. ‘We share best practices, everyone’s biggest fear is that they’ll have no energy for the rest of their lives. We have students who, because of a flu shot or a new covid infection, relapse, while others get a little bit better. There is someone who got better thanks to a good match with a physical therapist and an occupational therapist, but it’s all customised. Sometimes it helps to find your physical boundaries with the help of a physical therapist, other times it’s best to stay as far away from those boundaries as possible.’

Customisation

The student advisors at the study programmes offer good support to the long covid patients, Marieke Fernhout noticed. ‘We have wondered whether a coordinator for the university as a whole would work well, but it’s all so customised that student advisors are probably the right people for the job.’

Although attending the support group is difficult for some members because of a lost sense of time and because an online meeting might even be too burdensome, the students are happy the group exists, says Fernhout. ‘This way, they are still in control of something at least. Although attention to covid has faded, that is not the case for these students. For them, this is still day-to-day business.’

Translated by Jan Scholten.