How to Tackle COVID-19 related isolation for onshore and offshore students through peer led programs (Student Minds at UNSW)

Miss Nayonika Bhattacharya1

1UNSW, Sydney, Australia

Data supports that the participation of volunteers across programs since the onset of COVID-19 related restrictions and lockdowns have significantly reduced. The reduction in the number of students volunteering in peer-led programs such as Student Minds at UNSW, has since affected the satisfaction and feeling of inter-connectedness among students. Student Minds at UNSW is a peer-led organisation that aims to create positive help seeking behaviour among UNSW students. It facilitates conversations on various topical issues such as Men’s Health, Academic Burnout in an online setting, managing social and personal expectations and helping students manage mental health conditions, isolation and how to seek help.
Our interactions and subsequent observations indicate that students are less likely to participate in online events due to increased zoom or virtual participation burnout, lack of organic communication, difficulty in connecting with people and maintaining friendships beyond organised activities. Additionally, Student Minds at UNSW has organised student- led online events, created online content that promotes self-guided care, awareness about mental health conditions, symptoms, and strategies on management of stress, but has observed a decrease in participation due to an oversaturation of wellbeing related events.
Student Minds at UNSW has contrarily noticed a stable participation of students in online activities that require low participation and with an academic focus such as, ‘How to cope with Academic Burnout.’ Our organisation’s events reflect those participants are more likely to engage with meaningful content that can be applied to individual circumstances, are self-paced and consider cultural and personal limitations.

Project focused outcomes:
• Increase in the number of students who attend online events across social media platforms. Including Instagram and Facebook. We have grown from interacting with 100 students to over 500 students across every event livestream and receiving feedback and positive responses from students and our partner organisations.
• Stronger student participation and improved interaction with overseas international students studying across undergraduate and postgraduate degrees has improved the visibility of Student Minds at UNSW. With a strong focus on making the content on how to access mental health and support, and student stories has improved our student interaction by over thirty five percent of which twenty percent of our volunteers and forty five percent of our students are international students both onshore and offshore.
• Student Minds at UNSW has vastly improved its capacity in representing and providing information for international and domestic students who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community or identify as having a neurodivergence. We have increased the frequency of engagement of content that spreads awareness about issues and niche experiences of LGTBQIA+ and neurodivergent students to help them access suitable support services within the university.
• By increasing the diversity of content and by improving accessibility by creating infographics it has improved students’ interaction as it allows them to download and revisit the information on their own time and allows them to share it with their friends across different social media platforms. By making all information from different student-centred events, we have been able to broaden the organisations we partner with to improve the delivery of content and the range of topics we discuss.
• Our student interaction due to creation of easy to access content material has increased our social media visibility and interaction by over 135% and allowed students from 15+ countries to continuously interact with us and participate in the upcoming mental health month and student welfare events across three terms at UNSW.

Solutions
1. Increased the frequency of social media infographics posted on our Facebook and Instagram page on a weekly or fortnightly basis. The content is posted during different days of the week to increase maximum traction with our content.
2. Improved the cross posting of social media content by sharing live videos across our social media platforms, marketing upcoming events two weeks in advance and by sharing information such as speaker profiles and discussions, including giving students an opportunity to share their questions with the speakers prior to the event. These small changes in opportunities to interact with experts, ability to watch videos that are only 40 minutes long and Q&A sessions have allowed international – onshore and offshore students to increase their opportunities to ask questions and improve their sense of connection with the university.
3. Increasing social media visibility through use of shareable infographics has increase the conversation among students about impact of external and internal factors on student wellbeing and has encouraged them to support themselves and their peers. This has allowed students to acknowledge any mental health issues or experiences they may be going through in private and seek help through confidential services available at UNSW.
4. Frequent (weekly) interaction and reposting of content on how to seek mental health-based support and how to access other health services at UNSW that are offered through confidential pipelines for students to access. An increased visibility of the confidentiality of these services has improved the trust and interaction between students and Student Minds at UNSW.
5. Feature student stories, student op-ed articles and student and staff videos discussing different services at UNSW, insights on how to improve student learning and participation and how to improve student well-being and self-management at UNSW while studying or working remotely. These authentic interactions have allowed students to improve their communication and increase familiarity with different support staff present at UNSW.


Biography:

Nayonika is a 5th year Arts/Law student at UNSW who is passionate about delivering equitable support to onshore and offshore international students.

Nayonika has served as the UNSW SRC Geberal Secretary, Welfare Officer and International Officer, alongside serving as the MHAHS International Student Advisor and a City of Sydney ISLA Ambassador giving her a host of experiences on how to support international students. She has organised over 8 online events, a case competition for students to solve mental health and wellbeing issues at UNSW and has supported numerous students through mentroship opportunities.

Date

Dec 02 2021
Expired!

Time

1:55 pm - 2:05 pm