Background Information
Mental health issues have recently become more prominent as a public concern and many mental health campaigns have been launched to address these problems. This assignment is a grant application for funding to enable the Public Health Students’ Association (PHSA) to organize a mental health awareness campaign for first year students at the Melbourne/Bundoora campus of La Trobe University. The PHSA already runs many events to assist new students but the proposed program, titled ‘By Students for Students’, is specifically designed to help first year students who have problems with mental disorders. $20,000 is the funding required to organize the program which is a mental health awareness camp using a strength-based approach.
An increasing concern over the mental health and adjustment issues of students in Australia has been reflected in many media reports. As Australia is the hosting country for lot of students an age favorable for mental illness, this concern becomes more important. Studying in foreign countries is associated with the difficulties of relocating and change in the study environment. All these difficulties push the boundaries of new students beyond their limits. In many cases this push to the students leads them to the mental illness or depression. Students being in a new and unfamiliar culture may experience anxiety, disorientation, bewilderment, confusion, suspicion, perplexity and sometimes they feel an intense desire of being somewhere else. In this context they need to adjust with the practicality that they are the part of minority sector in the country and they have to face difficulties associated with the fact that they are in a completely different culture or living in a different country (Forbes-Mewett and Nyland, 2008).
When it comes to the adjustments made for such issues major adjustment involves the negotiation in the existing health care system of the hosting country. To identify such adjustments Australian study involves conducting different interview with the parents of international students that express their concern for the provision of health care facilities for their children as well as their health care insurance. Some studies shows that some of the students do not have a complete health security in new country and some of them are not understood well about the health insurance policies entails with their study programs. Along all these it has been observed that the students moving to a new country for their studies have a lack of knowledge and preparedness during their pre-departure, arrival and even at the orientation stage (Forbes-Mewett, 2011).
Mental Health Issues in Students of La Trobe University
Issues related to mental health are part of the responsibilities undertaken by members of the Public Health Students’ Association. The planned program is targeted at vulnerable new students at the university. It is focused on some diagnostic categories like bipolar disorder, personality disorder and schizophrenia. The symptoms and pathologies of affected students are based on the criteria of diagnostic diseases for mental disorders. There are many types of illnesses which are considered chronic that cause changes in the brain and some deficits with the processing of information. There are some medical models which influence the mental health of a person (Bakker & Van 2018). Salutogenesis is one such approach. According to Ruohomäki et al. (2015), it is an approach to mental health that concentrates on factors that support mental health and well-being rather than on factors that cause the disease (pathogenesis). This type of approach focusses on the individual’s attributes that promote health instead of the symptoms and pathologies that induce illness.
Questions that have been considered by the camp organizers are as follows
- What are the locations in which the campaign can be conducted?
- Which theory or model is important to follow in conducting this campaign?
- Which group of vulnerable students is to be targeted by the campaign program.
The association has decided that the most suitable approach in devising a program for students with mental health issues is the salutogenic approach.
The main role of this campaign is to provide mental health support to the students. The Public Health Students’ Association is a group of students who are interested in helping other students. They can easily relate to the mentality of other students and can understand the problems of their peers. The campaign provides mental support for students with mental problems by providing strategies to relax, stress less and sometimes help to reduce depression (Wang 2018). They can communicate with those students who need help in their lives. This program is necessary for student wellbeing. Mental health issues are serious and the staff who will be running the program will need suitable training. Campaigns of this kind can provide many opportunities for students to gain the skills that will enable them to improve their behavioural, mental and emotional problems. The main purpose of this campaign is to train the students to acknowledge their mental problems and observe them without judgement. This campaign also takes into consideration ways of facilitating communication with the parents of the students with mental illness.
According to Gaebel (2016), the phase of developing a framework for a campaign includes the process of designing a program matrix. Gaebel states that a campaign manager is necessary for plan implementation. Lindstom (2018) states that the salutogenis orientation approach is the departure of the paradigmatic axiom which is then shared by downstream and upstream efforts and he discusses the fact that this is used in highlighting varied factors that support human pathogenesis. The list of activities for the mental health campaign includes the process of thought recording through cognitive behavioural therapy. Kaur states that this tool is used in the process of identifying the negative thoughts of patients or clients that leads to the NTAs of negative automatic thoughts as well as negative emotions. This tool is regarded as the fundamental physiological cognitive tool that helps to identify negative thoughts that are linked with different thoughts and emotions. Furthermore, it is the opinion of Pilgrim (2017) that these negative thoughts and emotions are used in the process of examining the selected NTAs of individuals. This tool helps the process of logging the emotions of an individual that further helps in the process of backing up the automatic thoughts of the individual.
The Salutogenic Approach and its Importance
Roy (2017) provides a list of logical programs which includes the tool of physiotherapy with the help of emotional faces. This helps by depicting several emotions on individual faces. He later explains that this help helps to understand the variations of mental states in an individual. The salutogenic orientation approach includes six models of universal emotions – disgust, happiness, fear, anger, sadness and surprise. Clement et al. (2015) comments that this tool is regarded as one of the best, as it directly links the outcomes of therapy with the mental state of the individual.
In support of this approach, Ruohomaki, Lahtinen, & Reijula (2015) have included the factor of a mood tracker as a process of mitigating mental health issues. The tool is used to record the mood alteration of an individual. It considers the timing of mood changes. Bakker & Van (2018) state that this is a powerful and easy tool that helps to track the emotions and triggering situations in an individual. Similarly, Swan et al. (2018) added the concept of mental health relapse, which can have serious consequences for the individual. He explains that through the process of identifying a mental health relapse, there is an understanding of the differences in emotional responses in good times and setback times. A relapse, according to Taylor, Leslie & Boddie (2017), can lead to the discontinuation of meditation techniques, relationship breakdowns, alcohol issues and misuse of drugs.
Friedrich, Hoffmann &Bauer (2015), recommend the Stop Stigma Survey, the purpose of which is to eradicate society pressures on mental health issues and leads to the identification of what and how attitudes need to change.
A checklist the mental health of students needs to be proposed by the delegates. According to Swan et al. (2015) there is increasing community and government recognition of mental health as a serious social issue. The Public Health Students’ Association (PHSA) of La Trobe University has organized a two-hour campaign for helping address this issue in a tertiary education context. There are many other campaigns organized by the PHSA like ‘Stressless Week and ‘Feeling Good’ which help promote good student mental health.
The Public Health Students’ Association (PHSA) is normally a group of students and is open for all. They organize social, fun, exciting and creative programs which promote student health and well-being. According to Taylor et al (2015), there are many reasons for students being vulnerable to mental health issues. These include the pressures of assessed performance, the uncertainty about career and life pathways, and the necessity of managing practical life matters like accommodation and finances.
Tools and Models Used in the Campaign
There are always difficulties associated with discussing one’s mental health problems with others. However, there are some creative activities that can help resolve this problem and raise awareness and understanding for these issues (Friedrich et al. 2015). This type of campaign helps students to learn about them in an active way eg mindfulness exercises and the Stop Stigma Survey. Mindfulness exercises help calm the mind and body. According to Robinson et al. (2015), this helps young people to value the process of stilling the mind and also provides an easy way of moving into more health related issues.
Mindfulness activities help students to think in a broad way and helps mitigate problems related to stress. There are several lesson plans that can be used to introduce students to mental health problems. According to Salter (2016), they can teach students that mental health problems are like physical issues and they don’t need to panic. Useful mental practices can be used as a way of resolving their issues. The use of quizzes and tests can solidify learning. Assignments with a mental health focus can also be used to enable students to gain even deeper understandings of issues. (Kayrouz et al. 2015). A quiz about suicide is suitable for tertiary students. It has multiple choice answers and is more specific than the Stop Stigma Survey (Clement et al. 2015), which is a good way for students to assess their current knowledge of their own state of health and also helps them to learn about some other normally uncomfortable subjects.
Conclusion
The development and implementation of the ‘By Student for Students’ camp program for first year students experiencing mental health issues is an important addition to student activities. It will help students to develop self-confidence and resilience strategies that will equip them to meet the many challenges ahead in their personal and academic lives.
References
Books
Gaebel, W. (2016). The Stigma of Mental Illness-End of the Story?. W. Rössler, & N. Sartorius (Eds.). Berlin: Springer.
Pilgrim, D. (2017). Key concepts in mental health. Newcastle upon Tyne: Sage.
Journals
Bakker, A. B., & van Woerkom, M. (2018). Strengths use in organizations: A positive approach of occupational health. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 59(1), 38.
Clement, S., Schauman, O., Graham, T., Maggioni, F., Evans-Lacko, S., Bezborodovs, N., … & Thornicroft, G. (2015). What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies. Psychological medicine, 45(1), 11-27.
Forbes-Mewett, H. (2011) ‘International Education Preparation: Minimising Risk and Furthering Security’. International Journal of Contemporary Sociology 48: 61-92.
Forbes-Mewett, H., C. Nyland and S. Shao (2010) ‘International Student Security: A View from Beijing’, International Studies in Sociology of Education 20: 355-373.
Friedrich, V., Hoffmann, S., & Bauer, G. (2015). Strategies of active dissemination of workplace health promotion. International Journal of Workplace Health Management, 8(1), 3-14.
Kayrouz, R., Dear, B. F., Johnston, L., Keyrouz, L., Nehme, E., Laube, R., & Titov, N. (2015). Intergenerational and cross-cultural differences in emotional wellbeing, mental health service utilisation, treatment-seeking preferences and acceptability of psychological treatments for Arab Australians. International journal of social psychiatry, 61(5), 484-491.
Robinson, M., Raine, G., Robertson, S., Steen, M., & Day, R. (2015). Peer support as a resilience building practice with men. Journal of Public Mental Health, 14(4), 196-204.
Ruohomäki, V., Lahtinen, M., & Reijula, K. (2015). Salutogenic and user-centred approach for workplace design. Intelligent Buildings International, 7(4), 184-197.
Salter, M. (2016). Men’s Rights or Men’s Needs? Anti-Feminism in Australian Men’s Health Promotion. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 28(1), 69-90.
Swan, E., Bouwman, L., Hiddink, G. J., Aarts, N., & Koelen, M. (2015). Applying the salutogenic framework to nutrition research and practice. American Journal of Health Promotion, 30(2), 71-73.
Taylor, A., Leslie, S., & Boddie, K. (2017, July). Promoting mental wellbeing in young people aged 12–18 years: opportunities for design. In Proceedings of the 31st British Computer Society Human Computer Interaction Conference(p. 33). BCS Learning & Development Ltd..
Wang, R., Liaukonyte, J., & Kaiser, H. M. (2018). Does Advertising Content Matter? Impacts of Healthy Eating and Anti-Obesity Advertising on Willingness to Pay by Consumer Body Mass Index. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 47(1), 1-31.
Article
Kaur, M., Jindal, R., Dua, R., Gautam, A., & Kaur, R. (2017). Salutogenesis: A new approach toward oral health promotion. Contemporary clinical dentistry, [Online] 8(3), 387. Retrieved on: <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5643994/>
Lindström, B. (2018). Workshop salutogenesis and the future of health promotion and public health. Scandinavian journal of public health, [Online] 46(20_suppl), 94-98. Retrieved on: <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1403494817743902>
Roy, P., Tremblay, G., Robertson, S., & Houle, J. (2017). “Do it all by myself”: A salutogenic approach of masculine health practice among farming men coping with stress. American journal of men’s health, [Online] 11(5), 1536-1546. Retrieved on: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5675206/
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