Coping with Stress and Anxiety amongst University Students - Assignment Example

COPING WITH STRESS AND ANXIETY AMONGST UNIVESITY STUDENTS Name Institution Course Tutor Date Coping with Stress and Anxiety amongst University Students Exercise 1: The Framework of the Problem The Challenge and its Relevance Mental health is becoming one of the major global concerns. Researches, alongside media reports, reflect on the growing concern over mental health and adjustment issues, especially for university students (Collins 2010a; Collins 2010b; Forbes-Mewett and Sawyer 2011; Cheung et al. 2016). Also, the 2011 National Summit on Mental Health of Tertiary Students draws increased attention to the mental health challenges amongst the population in the universities (Forbes-Mewett and Sawyer 2011). Australia is amongst the host of many international students from all around the globe, and; if not most; few studies have explored the issue of inherent stress and anxiety amongst the students (Thompson et al. 2006; Forbes-Mewett and Sawyer 2011). A report by Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) argued that mental health is one of the Australian’s nine National Health Priority Areas, yet there is still increasing concern of stress and anxiety among the university students (AMSA 2013a). Therefore, it is evident that Australia; just as some other countries around the world; is battling with the issues of mental health problems amongst its university students. The Problem Stress and anxiety are very common human emotions that everyone feels at times. However, the problem of adjusting with the life and changes in the university is quite a challenge to the students. University students face challenges of stress and anxiety whilst going through most of the school programs and routines; they levels of stress and anxiety tend to increase when cases such as adapting to the life at the university, performing in social situations, coping with exams, dealing with relationships, or preparing to leave the university, arrive. The Stakeholders Additionally, this problem has consequent impacts on other stakeholders too. Regulators, providers, beneficiaries, and the entire eco-system of a university, are involved in this problem affecting the university students (Ahir and Priya n.d.) As part of the solution, the intent of this paper is to present the design of an innovative service to enhance university student experience in response to coping with stress and anxiety. In concern to coping with stress and anxiety amongst the university students, there are areas of opportunities and challenges involving the stakeholders. Regulators are responsible for financing, giving guidelines, and providing legal framework. Breakage of the legal guidelines is the most likely challenge for this type of stakeholders. Through this intervention, parents and universities can manage the rate of mental problems amongst students and prevent incidents of school dropout. Exercise 2: Observation Just as Kumari and Jain (2014) explain, observation of social behaviours of students as they interact is one of the effective methods of identifying cases of stress and anxiety amongst students. Therefore, I employed this method and carried out observations directing to how students socialise around the school the premises as well as outside. I attended a birthday party of one of my classmates outside the school compound. I made sure to be part of many group conversations as possible so as to learn if the theories concerning stress and anxiety I had in mind can be confirmed. I expected isolation, expression of irritation fears, and violent outburst amongst others. In addition to the list of the signs of stress and anxiety I had before, I learnt that stressed students find it difficult to focus on a specific topic of conversation or activity. They express irrational fear, strong mistrust of others, and social isolation. For the past almost two weeks, I have been observing closely the students whom I suspected might be undergoing situations of stress and anxiety as I had observed at the party. I was focussing on how they relate to their schoolmates, what they wear, how they attend classes and other academic gatherings, and their general behaviours. I realised that most students have at least one or two signs of stress situations. Majority of the students I observed were having abrupt changes in manner, style, and personal hygiene. Most of the students I observed their behaviours becoming ritualistic; going to the same place almost every day. They also confirmed the social isolation behaviour. Moreover, few of the students we frequently absenting from classes and even disappear for days. Inferentially, the above observations were the indications the normal life and routines were objected by some issues as far as their liver are concerned. As AMSA (2013b) pinpoints, these signs are some of the visible signs of stress and anxiety amongst students. The following graph represents the percentages of number of students that expressed the sign of stress and anxiety out of twenty students. Exercise 3: Interview and Journey Map In addition to the observation in curried out, I also conducted five in-depth interviews. I selected the questions and ideas to dwell on from a large study about the mental health issues amongst international students in the Australian universities (Forbes-Mewett 2008). I intended to explore the views, concerns, and the experiences of the selected participants concerning coping with stress and anxiety. The five participants I chose were: two international students and one from within the country; international student support staff, and the general medical practitioner. My rationale for the selection was to capture as clear information as possible on the factors and effects of stress and anxiety amongst students. It was my expectation that the selected individuals were having relatively enough experience in dealing with the issue of stress and anxiety that students face whilst going through their studies. The participants recorded a significant percentage of stress and anxiety issues as one of the major challenges that university students face. The views, concerns, and experiences I got from the international students support staff were evidently confirming how most student are undergoing through the difficulties of stress and anxiety. The areas of concern were the adjusting difficulties for student as they change environment; anxieties of wrong course choices; social isolation due to difference in culture; financial difficulties, and history of emotional disturbances. Also, I learned from one of the participants that cases such as recent loss of an important person; either by death or separation, recent loss of esteem, previous period of poor performance academically or health wise, and traumatic family event, are some of the key contributors of stress and anxiety problems amongst students. From this student, I uncover that the student always operates from the place of residence to the classrooms as usual routine. The student argued that he did not have any interest in associating with anyone or even attending gatherings of any kind. For him, it is all about classes and sleeping. This kind of behaviour is what Australian Psychological Society (2014) describe as ritualistic behaviour of stress. Exercise 4: Personas and Scenarios David is an international student at UTS from Asia. He was admitted under the faculty of Business Administrations and Management. He lives with his classmate in a rented flat that is situated some kilometres away from the school premises. David was the students’ business administration association in his former high school, and he looks forward to becoming a competent business practitioner after completing his studies. Within the school, he has been part of many seminars and societies that deals in enhancing business studies in the university. David spends much of his weekend time discussing with his friends. Being an international student, he always tries to make as many diversified friends as possible to as to be able to fit into the new environment. He also likes exploring and learning new things. Hiking is one his hobbies; he and his best friends go hiking and nature walks quite often. When David comes back from his nature trips, he always discusses what he had leaned with the rest of friend he has. Also, he also likes the internet. He argues that most of the ideas he employ to cope in the school environment are from the internet. According to him, the internet is another advisory friend he has besides the school friends. David lost his mother and two younger siblings; a brother and sister; as a result of divorce between his parents. Being at the right age, court decided that he lives with his father while his brother and sister went with the mother. Apparent, this situation did not turn out to his preference. He is having difficult time dealing with it. He has always been close to the mother than his father. Any assistance he needed, he would share with his mother. Since the divorce, his mother has been unreachable and now David has no one to talk to about his life in school. Consequently, David feels lonely and he does not see the good in being in school, or rather living. He says he has always wanted to talk to someone about the difficulties he is going through, but he fears the information might be used to his disadvantage. He finds himself out of appetite and he rarely eats. He sleeps a lot, and even misses most of his classes. David argues that the internet is not giving him the specific help he needs, and his is afraid to talk to anyone. Therefore, I firmly believe that my idea of online health manager portal (OHMP) is a significant solution to David’s issues and others. As discussed earlier, most of the causes of stress and anxiety amongst university students revolve around the issue that has the direct link to them. They always feel to talk to someone about their issue but they fear of what would be the consequence. This fear is comes from the need to secure privacy and, not to let any information be used against them. Therefore with the help from an online assistant, privacy can be ensured and help facilitated as well (University of Manitoba 2014). Exercise 5: Testing Ideas The primary design of this innovative service; OHMP; was to enhance university students experience in response to coping with stress and anxiety by offering an online platform where students can sign up and pose questions that are answered by the administration. OHMP intended to bring together, the possible challenges that the students face whilst coping with such mental health problems. After a ten minutes presentation of what OHMP is and how it works, the significant number of students who signed up reflects the necessity and relevance of this service to the problems in question. However, after the presentation of the ideas of OHMP and how it works, there were numerous concerns of privacy. Students needed a platform that has their personal sharing protected against access by others. Additionally, students needed an extension of service where they can audio-communicate with a professional in matters concerning coping with the problems. Therefore, I tend to modify OHMP design to accommodate the requirements by the students. The new design of OHMP needs to be incorporated into the university system as one of the services offering assistance to the students. The school need to establish a team of department that are competent to deal with students’ questions in audio conversations and live chats (Cheung et al. 2016). Exercise 6: Final Design Development To efficiently allow the cross communication between a team of experts and students concerning the ideas of coping with stress and anxiety, the management of the university should establish a team of experts concerning the issues of mental health amongst students. The team should then incorporate OHMP into the normal routines and programs such as counselling. The design of OHMP should allow creation of student’s account that contains the profile details. Only the student is purported to access and see what is in the account. The rationale of this idea is to protect the privacy of the student and allow him or her to open up and seek assistance without holdbacks. The design of OHMP outlays as follows. If possible, the management should also incorporate the options of live audio or video calls to facilitate actives participation of the intents. Also, the security and privacy setting options should give the intended students confidence of sharing their personal feelings, alongside their fears whilst knowing believing that their privacy issues are observed and taken into consideration by the administration. Exercise 7: Reflection Through the task of gathering ideas to establish a link of solutions that can enhance university student experience to cope with stress and anxiety, I learned that student keep a lot of issues in their lives; students go through many different difficult situations. I have always have this idea that university changes students through peer influence, but I have learned that some of the changes are beyond the influence of the students themselves. Through the exercises, I familiarised myself with some of the mental and emotional problems that we face as students. I have also learnt that students are need of mental and emotional help but they fail to seek assistance from their friends or others because of the fear of embarrassment (Forbes-Mewett and Sawyer 2011). I realised that help can be provided to the victims of such emotional and mental difficulties by letting them decide on how they would prefer to tackle their problems; letting the victims give ideas of how they should be helped (Thompson et al. 2006). Therefore, the engineering mind of innovation and designing is a tool that can incorporate all the ideas that are collected from the students themselves to establish a solution linking the experts and the victims. Slideshare.net (2016) presents the qualities of designing. A good design involves capacity, speed, expertise, and innovation as some of the reasons it necessity. Through good use if the ideas gathered during these excesses, online health manager portal (OHMP) can help students cope with cases of stress and anxiety. It can also help the management of the university to reduce monitor such cases and reduce the incidences of their impacts such as violence outbursts (Thawabieh and Qaisy 2012). Furthermore, it can reduce the incidence of school dropouts and other associated effects (Collins 2010a; Collins 2010b). eference List Ahir, K. and Priya, A, n.d. The Role of Internal and External Stakeholders in Higher Education Affairs in India. Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA), 2013a. University Student Mental Health: The Australian Context. Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee. Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA), 2013b. Current University Student Mental Health Interventions: A Global Perspective. Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee. Australian Psychological Society, 2014. Stress and wellbeing in Australia survey. Cheung, T, Wong, S, Wong, L. et al., 2016. Depression, Anxiety and Symptoms of Stress among Baccalaureate Nursing Students in Hong Kong: A Cross-Section Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 13. Collins, SJ, 2010a. Students Stuck by High Anxiety. The Age, 29 November. Collins, SJ, 2010b. Depression High Among University Students. The Age, 7 July. Forbes-Mewett, H. and Sawyer, A, 2011. Mental Health Issues amongst International Students in Australia: Perspective from Professionals at the Coal-face. The Australian Sociological Association Conference Logical Lives/Global Networks. Forbes-Mewett, H, 2008. Understanding and Managing International Students Security Needs in Australia. PhD thesis, Monash University, Melbourne. Manitoba University, 2014. Success through wellness: Enhancing the campus community to promote and support mental health and well-being. Campus Mental Health Strategy. Thawabieh, A.M. and Qaisy, LM, 2012. Assessing Stress among University Students. American International Journal of Contemporary Research, Vol. 2, No. 2. Thomdon, G, Rosenthal, D. and Russell, J, 2006. Cultural Stress among International Students at an Australian University. Australian International Education Conference. Read More

In concern to coping with stress and anxiety amongst the university students, there are areas of opportunities and challenges involving the stakeholders. Regulators are responsible for financing, giving guidelines, and providing legal framework. Breakage of the legal guidelines is the most likely challenge for this type of stakeholders. Through this intervention, parents and universities can manage the rate of mental problems amongst students and prevent incidents of school dropout. Exercise 2: Observation Just as Kumari and Jain (2014) explain, observation of social behaviours of students as they interact is one of the effective methods of identifying cases of stress and anxiety amongst students.

Therefore, I employed this method and carried out observations directing to how students socialise around the school the premises as well as outside. I attended a birthday party of one of my classmates outside the school compound. I made sure to be part of many group conversations as possible so as to learn if the theories concerning stress and anxiety I had in mind can be confirmed. I expected isolation, expression of irritation fears, and violent outburst amongst others. In addition to the list of the signs of stress and anxiety I had before, I learnt that stressed students find it difficult to focus on a specific topic of conversation or activity.

They express irrational fear, strong mistrust of others, and social isolation. For the past almost two weeks, I have been observing closely the students whom I suspected might be undergoing situations of stress and anxiety as I had observed at the party. I was focussing on how they relate to their schoolmates, what they wear, how they attend classes and other academic gatherings, and their general behaviours. I realised that most students have at least one or two signs of stress situations. Majority of the students I observed were having abrupt changes in manner, style, and personal hygiene.

Most of the students I observed their behaviours becoming ritualistic; going to the same place almost every day. They also confirmed the social isolation behaviour. Moreover, few of the students we frequently absenting from classes and even disappear for days. Inferentially, the above observations were the indications the normal life and routines were objected by some issues as far as their liver are concerned. As AMSA (2013b) pinpoints, these signs are some of the visible signs of stress and anxiety amongst students.

The following graph represents the percentages of number of students that expressed the sign of stress and anxiety out of twenty students. Exercise 3: Interview and Journey Map In addition to the observation in curried out, I also conducted five in-depth interviews. I selected the questions and ideas to dwell on from a large study about the mental health issues amongst international students in the Australian universities (Forbes-Mewett 2008). I intended to explore the views, concerns, and the experiences of the selected participants concerning coping with stress and anxiety.

The five participants I chose were: two international students and one from within the country; international student support staff, and the general medical practitioner. My rationale for the selection was to capture as clear information as possible on the factors and effects of stress and anxiety amongst students. It was my expectation that the selected individuals were having relatively enough experience in dealing with the issue of stress and anxiety that students face whilst going through their studies.

The participants recorded a significant percentage of stress and anxiety issues as one of the major challenges that university students face. The views, concerns, and experiences I got from the international students support staff were evidently confirming how most student are undergoing through the difficulties of stress and anxiety. The areas of concern were the adjusting difficulties for student as they change environment; anxieties of wrong course choices; social isolation due to difference in culture; financial difficulties, and history of emotional disturbances.

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