Fostering Mental Wellbeing among Undergraduates: Posssible Avenues

Abstract

Psychological distress and mental disorders have become a major health hazard among university students. There is strong evidence indicating that undergraduates are at a very high-risk phenomenon, and this will continue to grow across student populations around the globe. Thus, the current study focuses on analysing an existing counselling process within a university context to identify the focus and efficacy of the process. Data were extracted using counselling reports published under the university’s Health and Wellbeing Unit from 2017 January to 2018 December. Results indicate that 881 counselling sessions have been conducted focusing on various psychological and non psychological issues. In all the cases, the traditional one-to-one counselling approach was used to elicit the required information from the client. It was evident that ‘personal issues’ are the most significant contributor to psychological issues amongst undergraduates. They have also received counselling service related to academic matters. However, findings emphasise that only few percentages of undergraduates seek for counsellors’ support while larger cohort who needs attention remain unobserved. The records elaborated that undergraduates are not willing to open up and share their thoughts. Thus, the current study focuses on identifying various novel avenues to better serve the population.