Stress mental health

1. COVID-19 : Supporting Student
Mental & Emotional Health
Well- Being

6. What to Expect: Stage of Grief
• Denial-Shock, Avoidance, Disorientation, “This is not
really happening!”
• Anger, Anxiety & Fear:-
• Anger about imposed disruptions/restrictions
• Anger towards decision makers(politician, health
authorities) & perceived resources of pandemic
(China).
• Health and safety concerns for ourselves and others.
• Worry about family, relationship, academics etc.
• Uncertainty about

7. • Bargaining- negotiating to change the reality
of the situation or circumstances.
• Depression – sadness about abrupt and
unexpected losses (milestones, celebrations,
future plans, relationships etc.)
• Loneliness, boredom and helplessness.
• Acceptance – reconciliation, meaning making,
pivoting, resiliency/ growth.

10. Strategies for coping & Protecting
Mental Health
• Be kind, gentle and more patient rather than
judgmental, punitive and harsh.
• Recognize and accept the vulnerability and
suffering are inevitable and part of the human
experience for all of us.
• Be flexible with expectations and goals for
ourselves and others.

13. Emotional well-being is equally
important as physical well-being.
• Be kind to others even by simply listening to
them……doing this can impact positively on
your own well-being.
• Your one phone call might be very important
to someone else.
• Love and accept yourself and others. You
don’t have to be silent, speak up and share
what you are going through.

14. Limit Social Media & News
Consumption
• Reduce risk for vicarious trauma
• Increase likelihood that our emotional &
behavior responses are proportional to actual
rather than hypothetical or sensationalized
situations.
• Stay informed but not be flooded or
overwhelmed.

16. Sustain Social & Relational
Connections
• Maintain Reasonable Structure & Routine
• Attend to Basic Needs (sleep, nutrition,
exercise, connection to others etc.)
• Gratitude and Compassion- Research
demonstrate that practicing these enhances
resilience, happiness and well-being.
• Accept Vulnerability/ Suffering- Acknowledge
negative emotions rather than deny or supress
them

18. Healthy Distractions
• healthy distractions are Ok when feelings are
too overwhelming
• Get Outside- look, listen, smell and touch
nature.
• Strengthen Self Care Practices- exercise, yoga,
reading, art, video game, movies, cooking,
music etc.
• Internal Locus of Control- focus on what you
can control.

22. CRITICAL STRATEGIES
1. Reducing Distractions
2. Physical Organization
3. Mental Organization
4. Electronic Organization

24. Minimizing Distractions: Strategies
• Start with a clean work space…close clutter, makes
mental clutter
• Be driven by the to-do list…
• Check email infrequently: maximum 3x a day?? • Turn
on “out of office” notification
• Turn off app notifications
• Identify times in your calendar to check notifications
from school (the dating app can wait)
• Silence cell phone during working times • Hide it?? •
Set up free times where able to freely “roam”
YouTube/apps/news

26. Physical Organization
• Creating Space & Developing Systems
• Managing the transition: • School to “home”
• In-person to on-line
• Paper to electronic files
• Create a work space
• Clean surface that does not face something distracting
• A time-table is helpful
• Navigating learning management systems
• Emails/notifications/announcements in the LMS

28. Mental Organization
Time and Task Management
Time Management:
• How much time do I have? And how much time will
it take?
• Enter all new assignments into calendar, for each
class
Task Management:
• What do I have to do? And when do I have to get it
done?
• Figuring out what is negotiable and what is not…..a
real life skill.

29. Electronic Organization
• Some students will need zero help here…and can teach
us a thing or two…other students will struggle big time
• Ask about how they set up their files on their computer
from their LMS
• Do they download right away? Does everything get
saved to the desktop?
• Do they have a “tree” system? How are the files by
course going to be organized?
• Help to create automatic places where files are stored
• Help to create a standard way of naming files (e.g. last
revised date at end of file name)