By Ayuni Nabila
GOMBAK, 1 August 2021: At the Takreem 2021 Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (KIRKHS) virtual award-giving ceremony held on 21 June, Dr. Pamilia Lourdunathan won the Special Award for the Kulliyyah Committee on behalf of the project known as IIUM Mental Health Psychosocial Care Team (IMPaCT).
The Special Award is under the category of Student and Community Engagement,
Dr. Pamilia has a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology & Counselling and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Psychology while her interests are in the research of mental health and counselling through the betterment of well-being.
She is a lecturer of Psychology Department, an IIUM alumnus, and was also the project coordinator for IMPaCT in 2020.
At present, the project has now become a flagship which is being led by Prof. Dr. Shukran Abdul Rahman.
IMPaCT also won an honourable mention award by the 2020 Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) Award under Education for Sustainable Development acknowledged by the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS).
It directly supports SDG (UN Sustainable Development Goals) 3, to ensure healthy lives and promote the wellbeing for all at all ages but also it indirectly embraces three SDGs which are SDG 3, SDG 4, SDG 10, and SDG 16.
As the COVID-19 pandemic affects largely Malaysian citizens, economically and physically, IMPaCT was established to highlight a different angle of survival which is psychological well-being.
IMPaCT believes that psychological well-being carries the same weightage of basic needs with the main theme, resulting from movement control order (MCO) which are social isolation, rumination and fear, and symptoms of psychological disorders.
Thus, the aims are to redirect implementation of psycho-socio spiritual skills and knowledge towards the IIUM community, presenting mental health awareness-raising efforts through learning materials and emotional supports, and enhancing the quality of life of the IIUM community.
When asked during a phone call interview to describe this project in her own words, Dr. Pamilia clarified that this project actually started off with two main objectives, which were to provide psycho-socio spiritual education and psychosocial support to the IIUM community to improve their well being.
After being in this project for more than one year, Dr. Pamilia can see that these two objectives have been expanded and enriched further while being carried out almost every week at least or every day.
“It is wonderful to have a team comprising members of various disciplines because various members can contribute based on their expertise while some deal with psycho-education and some provide psychosocial support,” Dr. Pamilia said.
She concluded that there is a need for more psychosocial support providers as there are a number of members of the IIUM community in need of help. And the IMPaCT volunteers encourage and welcome people to join them in providing psychosocial support to accommodate those who have reached out for help.
During the interview, she kept stressing the need for psychosocial support as she described that “psychosocial support is very much in demand especially with the current situation that we’re going through”.
Using graphics as the main medium, IMPaCT delivered awareness and psycho-socio spiritual education through comic art designed by Muhammad Ihsan Bin Shaharil, an academic member from the Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design (KAED), as well as through infographic posters, articles, illustrations, and web contents to assist the IIUM community in coping with COVID-19 psychologically.
She mentioned that IMPaCT has grown in many ways and has become more structured and diverse in its activities and community engagement even with the current involvement of various experts in the field from IIUM being featured on Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) in the segment called “Selamat Pagi Malaysia” (SPM).
“Looking back, it has become more diverse and structured now but with still some room for flexibility,” she added.
Dr. Pamilia also disclosed IMPaCT’s upcoming plans that involve short podcasts, webinars, and project training for individuals in some authoritative positions.
Talking about the contribution of the IMPaCT members towards the IIUM community, she said there is a large emphasis on the engagement and empowerment of the community with regard to their well-being.
Furthermore, IMPaCT also offers psychological assistance to the IIUM community using online platforms such as e-psychosocial support, and e-peer support groups with numerous collaborations within the IIUM community, she said.
Aligning with IIUM virtues, IMPaCT is trying to raise awareness for psycho-socio spiritual education using posters, articles, through their website, Facebook, and Instagram page as they are not only emphasising the psychological techniques, but the team also focuses on embedding psychological and social aspects together with the element of spirituality.
For instance, Dr. Pamilia mentioned that among some of the psycho-socio-spiritual content in some psycho educational posters and infographics produced by the team is using the grounding technique as a coping mechanism and relating this to the Islamic practice based on the Quran and Sunnah.
“We can’t deny the bio-psycho-socio spiritual model. As holistic human beings, we can’t deny that we have several entities in us, not only a mind and a body but also a soul. So, we need to acknowledge that this in us as a holistic individual,” she stated.
When asked if IMPaCT still has a stretch where they wish to improve, she clarified that just like any project, looking back at what happened they really did their best using the given resources and the circumstances that they were in. But no matter what, they will always think that there’s room for improvement and so many more enriching endeavours to pursue and embark upon in their upcoming projects.
Our team would start as early as 7.30 a.m and our main medium of communication was the team’s WhatsApp group and we would be in touch either in discussion or in activities or providing support or psycho-education up to about 12a.m, it’s a common thing.
“In the middle of the pandemic trying to provide the service while actually going through it, so given all that, we really did our best.”
There were some who called us ‘the team that never sleeps’, Dr. Pamilia recalled jokingly.
“Everyone would go full swing and it was nice when we slowly got the hang of things, we were able to identify how to work on different areas that were needed and it is wonderful to see members from different backgrounds, different departments, and different Kulliyyah coming together to discuss various aspects. It was wonderful to see how we would work together and evolve to a more sustainable approach with a balance and holistic view,” Dr. Pamilia shared.
She mentioned how during the first few months when the pandemic started, IIUM has not decided to continue the classes, thus. it has become an open opportunity for her and the team to focus on perfecting the art of giving support and finally adapting to the project.
During May, they took things slowly while continuously providing support and Dr. Pamilia mentioned how proud she is of the team as they come together to make the project work with the attitude of “we need to do more”.
She is grateful that IIUM’s Rector has been supportive when it comes to mental health awareness and it is wonderful to have full support from the Rector and the higher-ups as they become so motivated and inspired.
In the interview, Dr. Pamilia was asked about our current situation and she answered, “The last few weeks have been taking a toll on people because imagine what it can do to a person’s mind when they once saw the cases decrease down to zero last year and people were so full of hope that they could go back to normalcy and they can actually have life post-COVID-19, especially looking at how in other countries, they’re already at the post-recovery stage and not wearing masks, having Euro Cup without masks then, but now people are becoming more desperate and afraid as the number of cases seems to be increasing daily; this, in turn, has caused many to suffer from what is termed as ‘pandemic fatigue’”.
Dr. Pamillia described that situation as the pandemic fatigue with the loss of motivation, people are worn out and having burnout as it is not only B40 that are affected but M40 too.
With the increase in patterns of mental health issues ranging from mostly issues such as sleeping difficulties, fear, and anxiety last year to more serious and severe cases this year such as the increase in self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
Hence, this situation had caused great concern in her.
However, she hoped that those reaching out to their team would be patient in receiving the psycho-social support services as the volunteers are also doing full-time jobs making the availability limited despite their tremendous effort in providing psychosocial support.
With the remaining minutes of the interview, she emphasised, “There’s no problem that’s too small to speak about, none at all. A lot of severe problems start off with small trivial thoughts so please reach out whenever you feel triggered, or sad. Any kind of support that you feel you want to discuss with someone, please reach out. It doesn’t have to be psychological serious issue, it can be anything at all. It’s good to reach out.” ***
(For further information about IMPaCT, click this link below https://flagship.iium.edu.my/eps/ or visit their Instagram at @impact_iium, Facebook @impact impact, and email at impact@iium.edu.my)