The stigma surrounding mental health means students may be unwilling to disclose difficulties they are experiencing and access help. International students are particularly vulnerable as they are away from their usual support networks. Their limited English can also restrict their communication of any issues.
Australian ELICOS (English language teaching for international students sector) providers are aware that mental health issues can seriously impact a student as they progress through their studies. In a survey by English Australia, over 50 per cent of ELICOS colleges believed the number of students with mental health issues has increased in the past two years which is placing an increased strain on the already limited resources of many ELICOS providers.
English Australia released 'The Guide to Best Practice in International Student Mental Health'. This guide provides tools and information that will help create an environment where students feel supported should they ever have any mental health concerns.
In this presentation, Sophie O'Keefe explores the guide and discusses the mental health issues that international and ELICOS students experience, and shares best practice for addressing these concerns.
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
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
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)
17.
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
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.’