The different facets of mental health awareness and education at Yale-NUS

10 October 2021 is World Mental Health Day—an international day dedicated to global mental health education, awareness, and advocacy.

To facilitate conversations about this important subject, Yale-NUS College organised a panel discussion about post-pandemic mental health challenges. The interactive webinar held on 7 October 2021, titled “The Long Tail of COVID-19: Global Mental Health Challenges in a Post-Pandemic World”, featured distinguished experts and policymakers specialising in medicine, higher education, and social advocacy.

“We wanted to address mental health challenges, which coming out of the pandemic, is a truly global crisis and one that will be with us for a long time if we do not act,” said Yale-NUS Vice President of Engagement and Senior Lecturer of Social Sciences (Sociology and Political Science) Trisha Craig, in her opening remarks for the event.

Indeed, the prolongation of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in rising stress levels and economic uncertainties, precipitating unprecedented mental health challenges and deepening mental health inequalities across societies.

“Unfortunately, the hardest hit groups are the youths, frontline health workers, women (especially those with young children), those infected with COVID-19, those with pre-existing mental health conditions or chronic conditions, ethnic minorities, and the people in the lower socioeconomic strata,” commented Duke-NUS Medical School Professor of Health Services and Systems Research Tazeen H. Jafar, who moderated the panel.

The panelists of “The Long Tail of COVID-19: Global Mental Health Challenges in a Post-Pandemic World” webinar.

Yale University’s School of Medicine Associate Professor of Psychiatry Theddeus Iheanacho kicked off the conversation with some pertinent insights about the environmental determinants of mental health conditions. Additionally, he pinpointed COVID-19 as a disruptor of social connections—one that brings about cascading effects on mental health. Importantly, social connections are, as Assoc Prof Iheanacho perceptively described, “the social oils that smoothen our ways of living”.

The conversation then pivoted to focus on Asian communities. Yale-NUS Associate Dean of Students Cory Nam Owen shared that research has documented higher levels of mental health stigma in Asian countries and the diaspora. Drawing from a mix of empirical support and her personal experiences overseeing student wellness at the College, she expounded how stigma contributes to “hiding parts of ourselves” and impinges on seeking help.

Chiming in regarding the topic of tackling stigma, Director of InHealth at Singapore’s Ministry of Health Office of Transformation Tan Weng Mooi directed attention to healthcare workers, who face specific vulnerabilities such as compassion fatigue, burnout, and fear. She highlighted how routine, relaxation, and building relationships are important mitigating factors.

Anthea Ong, a former Nominated Member of Parliament, and founder of WorkWell Leaders Workgroup, provided an economic perspective to the discussion. She argued that the economic case for investing in mental health is “unequivocally very strong”: for every dollar invested in scaling up treatment for anxiety and depression, there is a four-dollar return in better health and productivity.

Overall, the webinar provided an overview of mental health discourse, and served as a fruitful starting point to generate multifaceted and nuanced conversations. The next step forward would be to move from education to action.

Fannie Koh (Class of 2024) and Muhammad Naeem Shehryar (Class of 2023) are some of the Yale-NUS students who are stepping up to mobilise efforts in support of mental health and neurodiversity in the community.

Fannie is a Mental Health Collective (MHC) volunteer, and plans initiatives centered around mental health. Image provided by Fannie Koh.

“The topics covered in the webinar mirror the discourses I have encountered as a student. One reason for mental health challenges amongst youths is that the environment we grow up in engenders this idea that achievement and mental well-being are separate things,” shared Fannie, a volunteer with the Mental Health Collective (MHC), a youth-led, ground-up collective that aims to centralise advocacy efforts in Singapore’s mental health scene. In her work, Fannie helps plan conferences, panel discussions, and focus group discussions centered around mental health.

Reflecting on how her education at Yale-NUS has benefited her, she said, “My time at Yale-NUS has helped me to be a more outspoken team member and generate more independent ideas. When planning for conferences, I find myself being more open about sharing my personal opinions. I can better appreciate the fact that I do not add value by being right, but by creating conversations.”

Meanwhile on campus, Shehryar recently spearheaded the ADHD Collective & Support Group, which offers structured support to individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or ADHD-adjacent symptoms in the College.

Shehryar spearheaded the ADHD Collective & Support Group on campus. Image provided by Muhammad Naeem Shehryar.

Shehryar advocates for institutional support and learning accommodations for neurodivergent individuals on campus. Additionally, they coordinate formal study spaces that cater to unique and diverse learning needs.

Shehryar shared that they were thankful for the College’s support in helping launch the Collective. “We have been fortunate to receive help from the Intercultural Engagement office and Cendana Residential College in arranging for infrastructural accommodations, and providing academic and wellness support,” they said.

While mental health discourse is at still at its nascency, the discussion elicited from the webinar and the actions of students like Fannie and Shehryar are positive indicators of what is to come.

Click here to watch the video recording of “The Long Tail of COVID-19: Global Mental Health Challenges in a Post-Pandemic World”.