Mental health has become a global pandemic. It was so before Covid-19 and has become in recent years, given the confinement, social distancing and damage to our interpersonal relationships that and damage to our interpersonal relationships, which strongly impact our psychological and emotional well-being. psychological and emotional well-being.
While this situation has impacted the general population, a significant increase has been seen in students and faculty. significant increase in students and faculty of educational institutions.
So much so, that a study conducted by the universities of Los Andres and Talca, have found that 54.6% of the students who have found that 54.6% of higher education students have high levels of stress. of stress. 37.9% suffer from anxiety and 37.1% are depressed. Data that have set off alarm institutions and are looking for ways to provide adequate support, although it must be kept in mind that the support, although it should be borne in mind that this situation is hitting the population in a cross-cutting manner. population in a transversal way.
These pictures that affect the mental health of students are visualized in a wide spectrum, from insomnia (32.5%) to suicidal risk (20.4%). mental health care, which has almost doubled in the last 3 years.
With all this, it is vital to be able to activate support networks that help improve the quality of emotional and psychological life of the communities. emotional and psychological quality of life of the educational communities (and of the population in general).
To this end, there are some recommendations that can be followed, both by individuals and by educational institutions. individual, as well as by institutions of higher education that wish to take action on the matter.
First of all, it is essential that we are attentive to our emotional states, changes in mood, lack of energy mood swings, lack of energy, negativity about everyday situations, extreme feelings of loneliness, among others. loneliness, among others. All of these situations can give us a sign that we need to ask for help.
The second thing we can do is to activate our support network, that is to say, to approach family members, friends, teachers, etc., and to ask for help, friends, teachers, etc., and tell them what we are experiencing in order to receive guidance, direct help or people who can be attentive to what we are experiencing. direct help or people who can be attentive to our psychoemotional needs.
On the other side of the coin, if we become aware of these changes in other people around us, we can also approach them for help. around us, we can also approach and help to manage a support network for the person. for the person.
If we look at it from the role of educational institutions, the first thing is to be able to raise awareness within the educational community of these situations, and to be able to help the person to be aware of them. the educational community of these situations, as part of the normal requirements that people may have, which are stages in their lives. that we can have, that they are stages and that we must go to talk and have emotional support from friends, family and the community. emotional support from friends, family and the community of the institution.
However, this is not enough. It is essential to have tools and systems that help to measure and identify these situations. and identify these situations, since many times they are experienced in silence and without apparent symptoms, and symptoms, and we only find out about them when the situation has become serious or has generated such a delicate situation. a situation as delicate as suicide attempts has been generated.
To this end, implementing existing systems, such as the HPI Psyhealth tool, an instrument for recognizing, providing feedback and alerting about mental health and wellbeing needs, is very useful as it helps to focus support and monitor the wellbeing of the student community.
We all have psychoemotional needs, especially after the last few years we have lived, so it is best to welcome and take proactive measures aimed at prevention and the construction of close, affectionate ties and skills to accompany each other.
