By Najwa Yusman
GOMBAK, 30 January 2022: Mental health issues are not new as they have been there even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit our country. But how different are they since the pandemic hit us?
That was the rhetorical question evoked by the first speaker, Idayu Mumtaz Iskandar, a former vice president of IIUM Student Union (IIUMSU) 2019/2020, in her welcoming speech.
Idayu emphasised that she would focus on student leader’s perspectives based her own experiences in dealing with the administration on policy making process as well as on measures taken by IIUM to safeguard the health and safety of the community.
Her experiences and thoughts were shared in the seminar “International Webinar on Mental Health as The Core of Institutional Well Being: The Roles of Institutional Leaders”, organised by Akademi Kepimpinan Pendidikan Tinggi (AKEPT) in collaboration with IIUM.
In her presentation, Idayu highlighted three main points to enable conducive well-being of the community – system, environment, and process – followed by giving examples for each of the three measures taken from IIUM cases respectively.
She recapped the first point citing the case of IIUM Sejahtera Council where she said that “IIUM Sejahtera Council way is very exclusive and comprehensive”.
The IIUM Sejahtera Council, she stated, had led vibrant stakeholder in policy-making like IIUMSU to conduct surveys to find out the reality faced by students on the ground.
She said communication conducted between the IIUM Sejahtera Council and the student leaders was crystal clear as they were brought in to be involved together in making sure that there would be reactions coming from the students on issues concerning their health.
On the second point, Idayu highlighted the case of the IIUM COVID-19 psychosocial support system in relation to the environment.
“When this was established, it was very helpful as the discussion on mental health became a mainstream matter, and wherever we went, the conversation about this issue became particularly focussed by this particular team,” she further remarked.
Idayu also said that establishing a support system has made people become more willing to reach out for help.
On the last point concerning the process, Idayu cited the case of IIUMSU Academic Council where she believed the initiative taken by the Council to bring all faculty-based societies together had empowered them to look at the different needs of these faculties and tried to reach out to the Deans on their needs.
Besides the measures taken by IIUM’s administration, Idayu pointed out the significance of self-knowledge as one of the ways to empower students and the community to help themselves other than going to counselling division.
She highlighted the importance of work-life balance, social connection, and meditation to manage their thoughts and learn to make peace on their oen throughout this challenging time.
Meanwhile, the second speaker, Izzat Ebrahim, a postgraduate student from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), shared his experiences and views on efforts by UKM in dealing with mental health issues among their community.
He mentioned that the management of UKM had implemented various methods, one of which is the psychological support system through live communication with a UKM counsellor on social media and the establishment of a call centre.
Izzat said, “The call centre was established so that crisis communication could be handled effectively and emergency assistance could be provided immediately”
As students faced a diverse range of emotions such as stress following the expectations of university and social life, UKM had implemented a COVID-19 self-monitoring kit to monitor students’ mental health and well- being while living in isolation.
Izzat believed that the existence of the COVID-19 self-monitoring kit is a very practical step to maintain students’ mental health as the kit could identify and monitor students’ mental health and the impact.
He further addressed that from this monitoring kit, a follow-up session will be given for affected students starting with a counselling session, putting them in particular isolation centre, and extensive monitoring from college administration on students’ mental health and well-being.
Izzat said that the monitoring kit is very beneficial as it allows students to do things that can benefit themselves and provide support throughout the isolation period.
This second session of the webinar on mental health and well-being issues was held live on Thursday (27 January) via Zoom meeting and official IIUM YouTube channel. ***