Mental health helps us to perceive the world correctly around us. Mental health is one of the weakest parts of the overall health of students, especially when they are in their first year, coping with stress from living away from home and facing the stress of adult life. Good mental health helps us to manage stress, not only as a student starting life in a new city or maybe even a country, but for the whole life.
Students are experiencing difficulties with different aspects of emotional and mental health, from managing stress, pressure and change, to more serious mental illnesses such as mood disorders. Shifting to independent living can be the reason for many health problems, like anxiety, eating disorder, depression, suicide, and self-harm.
Triggers for these conditions are pressure form study and work, homesickness, money issues, and bullying.
Students must reach for help in the university, and they should not hide it because the disturbed psychological condition can lead to more serious problems to overall health.
Here are the signs when the mental health is disrupted:
- Not engaging in the university and extra curriculum activities – students can struggle to engage with the work, have smaller attention to tutors.
- Is socially withdraw – he/she is isolated and not looking appropriately for himself/herself
- Has problems with motivation
- Develop disrupted sleeping and eating patterns.
- Addiction or taking risks – like using alcohol or drugs
- Has symptoms like headaches, physical pain or similar – because the body and the mind are connected
- Increased irritability
- Avoiding some situation
But keep in mind that all of these symptoms can be experienced by some students, some students may experience some of them, but others can experience none of them. Either way, they must be aware that something is wrong with they are unwell. Like there are not two people behaving in the same way, there are no two people having the same symptoms. Students must recognize them and seek help.
What help is available for the students in the university?
The office for wellbeing service is a great place to go. Staff for wellbeing can provide sessions for hearing out the students and can further inform students where to go next – to which mental center and advisors, or sessions for support and support groups.
There are a lot of manners to look after the mental health, and among them:
Healthy eating and regular exercise – recommendations are unexpansive healthy food and 30 minutes of exercise.
Enough sleep – even studying for long hours, and having deadlines during the exam sessions, they should try to keep a sleeping pattern of at least 6 hours a day.
Tidy the place where they live – it is difficult to concentrate in an untidy place, so students must keep their flat tidy and fresh.
Make a balance – students do not necessarily need to go to every social event. They must make room for relaxing and doing enjoyable things.
Here are some tips for campuses:
Put courses and platforms in the extra curriculum subject for raising awareness of mental health. One of the main interventions is to promote well-being, and to also educate for the subject. As an interactive presentation or events, this could be opened to all students. Also, these can be opened even for parents and staff from other universities.
Themes to include are: problems of psychiatric and interpersonal nature, places to visit in case of problems, advice on how to monitor psychological issues by the student's self-examine, stress and prevention and many more. Other issues can include peer problems and psychological problems of their friends and how to help them. Every university must have a special section for well-being guidance and staff coping with the day-to-day life of the students.
Accessibility to mental health services. University staff, teachers and parents must be informed about the ways of promoting the well-being of the students. In the student insurance must be put cases or issues of mental nature. If the student health insurance does not cover these types of problems, students must search for additional policies adequate for their needs.
Group consultations. A supportive community made of teachers and students is the filter for bigger mental problems. In regular sessions, students can discuss about problems and concerns not only about the studies and curriculum, but also for their own struggles. This can be a red flag that something is happening to a student and that community will advice for further work on the issue, and if it's too difficult to resolve alone, the student will be advised to get appropriate help. Stigma is not good for students to have, and here, even at the age of 19, the community will help destigmatize mental illness.
One–to–one consulting. As previously said, the whole university must destigmatize mental illnesses. Students that have problems of emotional or behavioral problems are afraid of being marginalized. Every fourth student has some kind of mental issue in their studies. Universities must teach the students that it is OK to have some kind of mental issue, but it is not OK not to seek help and make things worse, to a point were they use alcohol in great quantity or use drugs. Mental problems are not going to go away by themselves. Programs for raising awareness can help the students to seek help when it is needed.
Programs will help students to be more aware of mental health. Various activities can be incorporated into universities: nutrition, cognitive therapy, stress reduction, art, yoga and many others. They can be easily incorporated in day-to-day living on the campuses or as classes in the university. In this manner they can balance between studies and personal life and have a positive overall experience.
Including a professional for the occasional visit. Universities can ask for some of the local professionals for mental health to come and have an open day for students. In this manner, mental health can be monitored, and issues can be resolved at a very early stage.
Thanks for Reading "Mental Health and Wellbeing of University Students" Written by Israt90 for Mr Univeristy *Note, full t&c on website. Prices, rankings & Information changes over time. All Information here is opinion based and all information should be fact checked*