Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Best practice in international student mental health
Similar to Best practice in international student mental health (20)
More from LearningandTeaching
More from LearningandTeaching (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Best practice in international student mental health
- 1. Best practice in International Student mental health Sophie O’Keefe, PD Manager, English Australia
- 2. Who is English Australia? www.englishaustralia.com.au ELICOS = English language teaching for international students sector
- 3. Presentation Overview • ‘Guide to Best Practice in International Student Mental Health’: background • Common issues in ELICOS student mental health • Challenges in providing student mental health support • Key features of effective practice
- 4. Guide to Best Practice in International Student Mental Health www.englishaustralia.com.au/professional- development/best-practice-guides
- 5. Guide sponsors Thanks to our Guide funding partners.
- 6. The Why? The ‘Orygen Report’ 2017 Found: a) University students are a vulnerable demographic; b) International students have aggravating factors which increase their vulnerability to mental health issues.
- 7. Brainstorm What are some factors which exacerbate mental health issues for International students?
- 8. Mental Health survey 33% centres assisting students with mental health difficulties on a weekly basis and 24% on a monthly basis.
- 9. Mental Health survey Anxiety 89% Depression 81% Extreme worry 73% Grief-related stress 68% Social withdrawal 52% Panic attacks 52% Suicidal thoughts 39% Internet/gaming addiction 38% Domestic violence 38% In the past 2 years, which mental health issues have students at your institution experienced? Feelings of extreme highs & lows Substance abuse Self-harm or risk of self-harm Debilitating acculturative stress Eating disorders Drastic change in behaviour Psychosis Post-traumatic stress Paranoia 37% 30% 29% 25% 25% 21% 18% 15% 13%
- 10. Challenges for education providers What are the main challenges your institution faces in providing support to students experiencing mental health difficulties?
- 11. Top challenges for ELICOS centres • Stigma & students not seeking help • Lack of staff expertise & training • Non-disclosure of issues before arrival • High demand for counselling & limited human resources • Language barriers • Clarification around confidentiality • Identifying students early
- 12. Essential elements of effective practice • Provision of MH services in a timely way • Promotion of MH services via range of channels • Written mental health policy • Training for all staff • Support for staff and other students impacted by MH issues • Healthy lifestyle and MH awareness promotion • Approaches to aid early identification of MH issues • System of reasonable adjustments to study requirements • Sound communication and record keeping processes - confidentiality (Derived from Reavley et al. 2011)
- 13. Promoting mental health awareness • Across range of media and study periods • Consider embedding in curriculum • Consider peer-led initiatives
- 14. Add RMIT slide
- 15. Promoting mental health awareness • Curtin LIFE course at Curtin English • For all news students • Includes mental health and well-being outcomes E.g. ‘Students can understand the terms depression and anxiety and identify signs of these in themselves and their peers.’
- 16. Training for all staff • Info. to help staff identify issues • Training in staff protocols – what to do & knowing limits • Training in having difficult conversations • E.g. Mental Health First Aid or ‘Accidental Counsellor’ “I don’t know exactly how much I should be doing to help students with mental health issues. Where should I draw the line?” (English teacher)
- 18. Early identification and intervention • ‘Two stop shop’ principle • Consider how enrolment forms give students an opportunity to pre-disclose existing mental health issues
- 19. Early identification and intervention Do you have a medical condition that may require additional equipment or support? Do you have a learning difficulty or health condition that may impact on the way you study, attend class or sit assessment? Telling us about your disability will not prejudice your application. The earlier you tell us, the better we are able to work with UNSW and others to assist you to make adjustments to your teaching and assessment program. If you choose not to tell us, we may not be able to make adjustments in time and this could affect your ability to progress in your UNSW Global program … If you disclose a disability to us, please indicate that you consent to our use of this information only for the purposes above by ticking this box. versus
- 20. Where to from here? 1. What training in the area of mental health would you find useful? 2. Are there any ideas from today’s session which could work at your centre?
- 21. References Baik, C., Naylor, R. & Arkoudis, S. (2015). The first year experience in Australian universities: Findings from two decades, 1994-2014. Melbourne CSHE. Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. Retrieved from: https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/docs/default-source/psychological- toolkit/k10.pdf?sfvrsn=4 Marginson, S.,Forbes-Mewett, H.,Nyland, C., Ramia, G., Sawir, E., (2012). International Student Security and English Language Proficiency. Sage Volume: 16 issue: 5, page(s): 434-454. Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health. Under the radar. The mental health of Australian university students. Melbourne: Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, 2017. Reavley, NJ, Ross, A, Jorm, AF and Killacke, E (2011) Introduction to Guidelines for Tertiary Educational Institutions to assist them in Supporting Students with Mental Health Problems, JANZSSA, 38, October 2011, 22-33. University of Adelaide Counselling Service: counselling.centre@adelaide.edu.au
Editor's Notes
- Brief introduction to who English Australia is to situate the presentation contextualy.
- Snapshot: ELICOS mental health landscape Key features of effective mental health policies & procedures Guide to available MH services and resources Real examples and case studies throughout
- Thanks
- Why focus on this topic (student mental health)? 1) Why this topic? In any calendar year, we could anticipate: • over 100,000 experiencing a Substance Use disorder • around 120,000 International experiencing one of the Anxiety disorders • 48,000 experiencing an Affective disorder • Around 200,000 students would experience one (or more) of these mental health disorders. 2) The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health 2017 – released the Report – Under the Radar – The mental health of Australian University students. Audience question: What do you think some of these aggravating factors are? Language barriers Displacement from family, religion, culture, social networks Cultural adaption Adapting to new academic culture Social isolation – difficulty forming local friendships, no sense of belonging Mismatch between expectations and reality Financial hardship Employability in Aust.
- And – In addition, there has been increased media attention on university student mental health
- And increased media attention on other international student issues such as exploitation by employers and landlords, racism, assault, harassment.
- And others
- Note that in our survey colleges report that the incidence of reporting of mental health issues has increased in the past 2 years. This could be because of an actual increase or due to more awareness and focus on the issue so more reporting happening as a result of this.
- questionnaire answered by around 20,000 Australians in national surveys every three years. It asks about depressive and anxiety symptoms in the last 30 days.
- Note: At English Australia mental health Forums, many professionals cited ‘insomnia’ as a huge issue These are the results from our mental health survey. Ask audience to comment on why it is useful to have this data? Some answers could include: -Can inform staff training focuses and connection to outsourced services. -As Ts, what to be aware of. Ss can reach out in different ways. -As Ts, be aware and prepared for what to do in situations that might require immediate action- eg a student who is having a panic attack during an exam in your classroom or when you tell them they’ve failed a unit
- I will ask people to think about this for 30 seconds.
- Person nominated as std counsellor was often DoS, Head teacher, student services staff. Many of these people have undertaken short training courses, such a MH First Aid. 3. Stigma related to different cultural paradigms of dealing with mental health and comments indicate also that Ss are fearful that disclosure may mean they are sent home. 4. Access to counselling staff in a timely way – wait periods; and smaller colleges are stretched for human resources (takes up a lot of time) 5. It’s extremely difficult to talk about emotions in another language, esp when you are distressed. A lot of colleges use staff members who are not trained interpreters to help but this can be problematic. 6. Although many colleges have great services for Ss, they are still struggling to get Ss to use them.
- Discussion question: which elements do you think you as teachers have some effect over?
- Consistent reinforcement across range of media and repeated during different study periods (and via class TEACHERS) - Back of toilet doors, tips of the week, mental health newsletters/emails. RUOK? Day, Mental Health Month, MH workshops at exam time Embedding MH awareness in the curriculum – Examples are Curtin Life course / GELI well-being course RMIT poster example
- Example – RMIT poster demystifying the Western mental health model Curtin Life – a 10 week (one hour per week) course that all new students take. Many of its aims are around MH awareness.
- -Orientation docs for staff include info. about MH procedures/Macquarie Uni twice a year seminars “I don’t know exactly how much I should be doing to help students with mental health issues. Where should I draw the line?”
- This is a Flowchart used by teachers at Uni of Adelaide ELC (they are trained in its use by the Counselling Service)
- Pre-disclosure- English Australia Mental Health Survey (2017): 67% colleges said their enrolment forms gave student an opportunity to pre-disclose pre-existing mental health issues but 64% colleges said ‘very few students with pre-existing issues disclose them.’