Singapore
Much has been written about the mental health issues plaguing higher education around the world. With high rates of anxiety and depression among students and many institutions facing budget constraints, administrators are struggling to provide adequate psychological services.
Gone are the days when widespread stigma prevented students from seeking professional help, but research shows that some vulnerable groups are less likely to access resources. At most institutions, the demand for counseling far exceeds the supply.
While causes, rates, and diagnoses will likely vary somewhat from country to country, most administrators will likely have student mental health high on their list of concerns. Similarly, you’d be hard-pressed to find an institution that hasn’t struggled to get it right.
Inadequate mental health support has dire consequences for students and institutions, including academic difficulties and higher attrition rates.
Singapore is a good example of a country where mental health is receiving national attention, especially in the higher education sector.
A 2022 study using data from the height of COVID-19 restrictions found that three out of four students at Singapore’s flagship institution, the National University of Singapore (NUS), were at risk of depression, with 83 It was revealed that more than % of respondents cited high levels of stress. .
Recognizing that hiring additional mental health professionals is cost-prohibitive and only part of the solution, Singapore’s institutions are implementing a holistic approach to addressing mental health. I am.
Multi-stakeholder engagement
Sharing the responsibility for mental health support across institutions can reduce the burden on university counseling centers.
Yale-NUS College, a residential liberal arts institution co-founded by Yale University and the National University of Singapore, utilizes trained student affairs staff and academic advisors to help students with low-grade academic stress and social anxiety. We triage and manage mental health issues at various levels.
Staff complete in-house training organized by counseling colleagues, and some extend their training through external programs such as Mental Health First Aid.
In 2021, as more faculty face mental health issues among their students, Yale University announced how to recognize signs of mental distress and teach empathic and active listening skills that students can use. Introduced “Gatekeeper Training” to walk you through various resources. .
Instructors and teaching assistants are often the first to notice mental health issues in students because they regularly interact with students in the classroom, during appointments, and during office hours. Administrators should ensure that faculty have access to and utilize an internal referral system that alerts appropriate staff when professional follow-up is required.
When NUS created the WellNUS© Mental Health Framework in 2021, we understood the importance of engaging multiple stakeholders. This was to systematically plan different aspects of health and identify key stakeholders who could provide relevant initiatives and support. The objective of this framework is to take a more holistic, structured and sustainable approach to the health of students, staff and staff.
In 2021, Yale University introduced a credit-based “College Resilience and Success” elective course for first-year students to develop strategies for dealing with the inevitable challenges and adversity they will face while attending college.
Example topics include finding your purpose, leveraging your strengths, practicing vulnerability, and building positive interpersonal relationships. The course was later adapted for graduates to support them through the stressful phase of leaving university.
The six-week course was a collaboration between the Office of Student Affairs and psychology faculty, and included seminar-style classroom discussions and assignments that focused on personal reflection and application. Students who completed the six-week course reported an increased ability to deal with future problems and understand what support resources were available to them.
organizational structure
In the UK, institutions are encouraged to focus on the wellbeing of their employees through the University Mental Health Charter and the Academic Staff Welfare Charter. The premise is that staff and student wellbeing are closely linked and support each other. Therefore, a university-wide approach is required to appropriately address mental health risks.
Naturally, this requires a review of organizational structures that take into account both students and faculty. NUS has followed a similar path and has committed significant resources to staff wellbeing, including a dedicated in-house counseling team for university staff.
In addition, students and staff are recruited and trained as “peer supporters” who provide basic emotional support and coping skills to students and colleagues in need.
NUS and Nanyang Technological University, another large Singapore university, have demonstrated high-level commitment to addressing mental health risks by establishing university presidents and well-being offices reporting to the presidents, respectively. Both staff and students will receive mental health support and experience strategic programs in a coordinated manner from the Central Wellness Office.
This approach differs from organizational structures in the UK and US. In the UK and US, mental health support is provided separately for staff by human resources departments (often through external insurance companies) and for students by academic affairs departments.
By integrating strategies and approaches around staff and student mental health, NUS has been able to drive consistent mental health campaign messaging and awareness of resources across the university community. In terms of impact, his NUS #AreuOK campaign in 2021 and 2022 reduced the stigma of seeking help, raised awareness of mental health resources, and increased uptake of mental health services among staff and students. Ta.
New technology
As the COVID-19 pandemic increases demand for mental health services and overwhelms many universities’ existing counseling capacity, institutions must carefully consider promising new technologies.
For example, AI-enabled chatbots and other types of online applications have gained traction in recent years, and there are thousands of mental health-related self-help apps on the market. Although evidence of effectiveness is still in its infancy, several promising studies have been published that have investigated specific technology platforms.
When innovative solutions are introduced, they should be seen as complementary to existing, well-established mental health solutions.
Other technology-based approaches are in their infancy. For example, digital phenotyping refers to passively tracking and proactively requesting data through smart devices to assess and predict mental health risks.
Students can opt-in to receive health-related questions via text message, which provides mental health professionals with timely information to predict when students may be at risk. Facilities can then respond with appropriate interventions to prevent further mental health deterioration.
Taking this concept further, universities can quantify student health based on measurements via digital devices, such as how much sleep they get and their digital footprint (for example, how orderly they navigate their learning management system). There is a possibility that it can be converted into This allows administrators to predict the progression of students’ mental health. Although this technology is still in its infancy, it shows promise.
One obvious challenge is the invasive nature of the personal data collection required for such an approach, and all the privacy issues associated with it. Nevertheless, in forward-thinking Singapore, such innovations are being evaluated as potential additions to a holistic approach to mental health support at NUS and other local universities.
As the global mental health crisis in higher education continues, university counseling services will continue to face insatiable demand. Singapore’s holistic and proactive approach, which creates multiple pathways to health and views mental health support as a collective responsibility across institutions, provides a promising framework that can be applied elsewhere.
Dave Stanfield is Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at Sarah Lawrence College, New York, USA, and former (2019-2023) Vice President and Dean of Students at Yale-NUS University, Singapore. Email: dstanfield@sarahlawrence.edu. Andrew Tay is the Director of Health and Welfare at the National University of Singapore. Email: aet@nus.edu.sg. This article first appeared in the current issue. International higher education.
