Mental Health Edition: "Accessibility to Mental Healthcare for University Students”

Discussion Starters:

Zaidan Chanif Alfarizi
Fideline Abbygail Zefanya
Marsa Azzahra Ratu Mariqal Albar
Frederik Jonathan Alviano Siahaan

Responders:

Rashesa Zalika Ladita
Marsa Azzahra Ratu Mariqal Albar
Azalia Zahira Zohar
Aika Fatiha Azhar
Cindy Irthania
Najwa Azzahra
Siti Malika Adiba
Rifada Chaerunnie
Syabilla Himaningtyas Sudarpo
Frederik Jonathan Alviano Siahaan
Samuel Ferian Bonay
Narandra Adhika
Reza Saputra

Reviewer: Fideline Abbygail Zefanya, Frederik Jonathan Alviano Siahaan

A. Introduction

There is a Latin proverb that says men sana in corpore sano, which means “a healthy mind in a healthy body”. The two must not be separated for every person without exceptions. However, some still find it hard to access mental healthcare facilities, let alone to visit them since not everyone has the same privilege to afford mental healthcare due to its high rates in fare for both consultation fees and necessary medications. Meanwhile, UK Mental Health Foundation reports say that people ages 14-24 are most vulnerable. This also includes university students as one of them, according to age group.

Being a college student who is obliged to manage every single activity, whether it be academic or non-academic, definitely has its burdens. Moreover, the amount of pressure due to a relatively excessive workload and hustle culture-oriented working style tends to lead students into burnout syndrome or even relatively underwhelming results in most likely physical and also mental health stability. Besides the imbalance between the two, other supporting factors such as problems related to social interactions, financial challenges or simply being homesick may vary on different people. Same as its leading factors, the amount of impact has different outcomes. The main problem is when they do not know what to do upon treating their conditions, and not having the proper financial and emotional support from their peers, even consider refraining from getting medical treatment due to stigma showing that mental health treatment is “a waste of money”, or being labeled as “weak”.

Henceforth, it is crucial to consider the importance of the correlating factors, which also includes how to deal with such measures and be considerate towards our mental well-being, to ensure the ability to maintain not only our academic and/or non-academic performance but also keep our sanity without over highlighting one but neglect the other.

B. Content of Discussion

Zaidan Chanif Alfarizi: What is your opinion about the theme?

Marsa Azzahra Ratu Mariqal Albar: To be honest, I think this theme somehow feels very personal to the point where this topic needs to be talked about openly and feel safe about it, as it is hard to talk about in a formal setting, since not everyone will talk about their experience. This theme is a good starting point to know people’s different point of view to talk about in a public space, and I expect this topic as our campus’ effort to raise awareness instead of talking about the problems and causes to happen especially about the facilities relating to mental health.
Rashesa Zalika Ladita: People look down on people who suffer mental illness, which actually this is something that people go through but seen as negative, so i hope this discussion can provide a bigger perspective to be provided in our society.

Zaidan Chanif Alfarizi: What is the most significant factor of mental health disruption and how do you think it can be solved?

Azalia Zahira Zohar (Dira): Most of the things that affect your mental state is the amount of tasks (academically or organization wise) which affects our mental stability, where we need to get it done and get overwhelmed.

Aika Fatiha Azhar: I think one of the reasons is that people don't want to reach out to their peers because they are being looked down upon and people tend to just see themselves in their own bubbles.
Cindy Irthania: Being a student far from home is hard, because I have to maintain myself in living alone. The ones who are helping me to adapt better are my friends and I would like to thank them for supporting me.
Najwa Azzahra: When I am doing overwhelming work along with a packed schedule, I will cry myself while coping by eating fruits, or watching movies.

Fideline Abbygail Zefanya: Now, let us correlate it with college life. How do college life and activities affect your mental health or mental health in general, especially since we are all active members of ALSA?

Aika Fatiha Azhar: Working with ALSA has strengthened my mental (state) a bit, so I guess that's the pro side of socializing in ALSA.
Rifada Chaerunnie: The correlation between mental health and ALSA environment, ever since I joined ALSA my schedule has been packed not only for college schedule but also for work programs. It has been very pressuring, but because of that, I met a lot of people and I can socialize with other students.
Rashesa Zalika Ladita: I find it overwhelming how packed my schedule was. However, it helped me socialize with other people.
Siti Malika Adiba: In my opinion, college life is determined by how you condition your mental state.
Marsa Azzahra Ratu Mariqal Albar: Our college life does not have to affect your condition, because if it is about how you see the benefit or the burden (from doing it), you will rather get tired (of it). It takes time for you to get used to balancing every aspect and it is draining to do them all at once. So, you have to know your own mental condition when you feel drained and what makes ALSA not be draining as you imagined. Being in ALSA also means that you have 6 (six) divisions to facilitate all your potentials, so you may use the opportunities provided here and you will feel satisfied in everything you participate in, and try to participate in other things besides ALSA by paying attention to your own conditions.

Marsa Azzahra Ratu Mariqal Albar: How is life since now you guys (especially batch 2022) have responsibility and how do you balance everything between ALSA and academic things?

Syabilla Himaningtyas Sudarpo: It is definitely quite a challenge since taking on these responsibilities, but it is a commitment I have signed up for and one I'm determined to fulfill. However, balancing the overload of work is absolutely tough, as expected, but it is all part of the process. To manage them all, I have had to get to know myself better, especially by improving my emotional and stress management.

Zaidan Chanif Alfarizi: With all of those activities, how can peer support programs and student-led initiatives (organization) contribute to creating a more supportive and inclusive environment for mental health on campus?

Frederik Jonathan Alviano Siahaan: A lot of people here have other activities, but it is important for you to have a balance between professional and personal life, such as socializing. It does not always have to come from peer support programs, but even personal ones. So, we can maintain things inside and outside of our work.
Fideline Abbygail Zefanya: I do think the balance of personal and professional life is important, since people have their own different tolerances. So, maybe when you feel like you have more things on your plate than you can control, you can ask your peers to help out with the workload and take it one step at a time.

Zaidan Chanif Alfarizi: Do you think mental health facilities in Indonesia are accessible?

Aika Fatiha Azhar: Accessing mental health facilities, particularly at UGM, is quite straightforward. However, there is a lack of willingness among individuals here when it comes to recommending these facilities to others. Despite their accessibility, many people tend to hold closed-minded opinions about them.

Zaidan Chanif Alfarizi: What about the (mental healthcare) facilities at UGM?

Fideline Abbygail Zefanya: In UGM, there is a service for mental health counseling named Health Promoting University (HPU). I can really consider it very easy to access since you can book the appointment through Whatsapp contact. However, the amount of human resources needs to be improved by adding them since they only have 1 (one) psychologist per faculty.
Rifada Chaerunnie: Speaking from my experience, the information regarding mental health cares are lacking, not as very well known for a lot of people.Additionally, people are not as open to mental health problems since they think it is a private matter.
Frederik Jonathan Alviano Siahaan: UGM has done a good effort in promoting mental healthcare and facilitating their students to these healthcare services, but there are stigmas around it so people do not access these facilities. Thus, there is nothing UGM really can do.
Samuel Ferian Bonay: I would like to add to what Fred said. We need to differentiate between the term ‘accessible’ and ‘available’, since to say such instances are ‘available’, they are (available). On the other hand, when it comes to defining whether it’s accessible then it is worth questioning, legally mental health institutions are mandatory. However, there is a structural problem that makes it inaccessible, therefore to say it's really inaccessible, but to say it’s available and you can go there without prior exposure to mental health care facilities and/or services.
Rashesa Zalika Ladita: There is a generation gap whereas the older generation considers it as taboo and our generation preserves this as a big issue. Therefore, it will make a big impact as it is one of the most fundamental issues to society.

Zaidan Chanif Alfarizi: As we mentioned in our first discussion, One of the contributing factors to mental health problems in the university is financial challenges. How do financial challenges contribute to the difficulty in accessing mental healthcare for university students?

Aika Fatiha Azhar: In this type of situation where one faces financial challenges and seeks assistance, the stigma surrounding mental health often leads to hesitation, as it is not perceived as a valid illness in the same manner as physical illness.
Samuel Ferian Bonay: I think would like to emphasize, based on each and every answer, the challenges including the financial one again go back to the mental health issues arising from which is structural because it is a structural problem, it creates challenges, I think to answer that, I think we need to eradicate its problem from its root, so whatever the challenges are we need to start from the bottom.
Fideline Abbygail Zefanya: I agree that this is a structural problem, I would want to highlight in a students’ perspectives, having limited resources in money, especially when it comes to simply reaching out to mental health, they will feel like it is such a waste of money and so on.

Fideline Abbygail Zefanya: Now, we will talk about how the stigma surrounding mental health issues differs within university settings as we come from different cultural backgrounds.

Frederik Jonathan Alviano Siahaan: Before we delve deeper into the cultural and ethnic groups, we should talk about the stigma in general first.

Aika Fatiha Azhar: Stigma within our surroundings for example is when your parents are concerned that there is actually mental in a person, so you will be forced to think that mental issues are not that big of a deal.
Azalia Zahira Zohar: I agree with Aika. I also think that family plays a big role here. For example, if someone grows up in a family who rarely expresses feelings they tend to have a difficulty also to acknowledge and understand their mental health. I also think that generation gaps correlate with the stigma since I assume older people would not care that much about mental health.
Samuel Ferian Bonay: Interestingly, those people who are resistant towards the discussion of mental health discourse are those who are more vulnerable in my opinion. They are prone because they don't care, especially conservative mindsets, because they don't realize they are suffering from mental illness itself and it is considered natural to happen. Not believing in mental health does not mean you cannot suffer from it.

Fideline Abbygail Zefanya: With that stigma, what are the prevailing societal attitudes towards mental health treatment? and how do they influence university students' willingness to seek help?

Narandra Adhika: These kinds of discussions especially on education play a big part in breaking barriers of the stigma itself.
Samuel Ferian Bonay: I think to answer the question, doing by not doing something is actually also a participation of breaking down barriers. For example, it is like how you control reactions in daily life, responding to friends that are currently struggling with mental health.

Zaidan Chanif Alfarizi: Because we are law students, what legislative measures or policy changes can be implemented to improve the accessibility and affordability of mental healthcare services for university students?

Reza Saputra: Actually, it depends on how the government will solve this issue. However, the governmental agencies or bodies are never that serious in resolving such problems. For example, we have Law Number 17 of 2023 concerning Health Code which provides rights for every person to access healthcare facilities.

Zaidan Chanif Alfarizi: To wrap up the discussion, I would like to know about your closing statements.

Fideline Abbygail Zefanya: We should care about not only ourselves but also other people surrounding us.
Zaidan Chanif Alfarizi: (People) should be more considerate of this issue because it affects our college life so we need to be better in handling our life at college.
Rashesa Zalika Ladita: It is important to highlight accessibility, availability, and stigma around it. Even when accessible, it is hard to get proper procedures, and have touched many aspects and challenges relating to mental illness.
Azalia Zahira Zohar: Besides talking about mental issues, I think about how we keep our mental stability or prevent mental diseases, such as talking to friends, doing exercises like walking, and so on.
Marsa Azzahra Ratu Mariqal Albar: I hope that through this discussion, not only we are able to cover aspects that have been discussed today but also we should care more about people around us, because the only person that can take care of our responsibilities is ourselves.

C. Conclusion

This discussion has succeeded in classifying the conditions of accessibility to mental healthcare facilities surrounding the environment. In the start of discussion, participants also raised their opinion towards several intermezzo discussions on maintaining emotional and stress management as university students. Furthermore, this discussion has already raised their perspectives regarding the given topic in the context of our university, specifically the Faculty of Law. The participants had also broken down a few points regarding this topic, such as the supporting and regressing factors of how mental healthcare facilities assist university students in accommodating their psychological needs, which led to the discussion of the different perspectives of the university students, the availability of mental healthcare facilities, etc.

ALSA LC UGM presents English Club: Mental Health Edition as one of the working programs under the English Development division. The purpose of this event is to encourage ALSA LC UGM members to expand their confidence and English language skills in responding to the given topic. Furthermore, this discussion is delivered with the purpose of exchanging knowledge and sharing experiences in which any possible mistakes in this discussion are completely reasonable. Hence, English Club: Mental Health Edition is featured to encourage ALSA LC UGM members to deliver their arguments based on concrete circumstances.

Bibliography

Prospects.ac.uk. 2023. “Looking after your mental health at university.” Prospects. https://www.prospects.ac.uk/applying-for-university/university-life/looking-after-your-mental-health-at-university.

United Kingdom Mental Health Foundation. 2015. “Children and young people: statistics.” Mental Health Foundation. https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/statistics/children-young-people-statistics.