Concern For The UHS Wellbeing Program
Written By Ajna Lacevic and Yesie LIN VIOTA
As part of our Community Civic Action Plan Project for Democracy and Justice, we focused on the mental health concerns of UHS.
We received feedback (from our surveys) that clearly defined the severity of mental health concerns at Uni High, as well as the efficiency of the system. Aspects of the Wellbeing System at Uni High were well received, in regards to certain areas of the system. In some cases there were more critical areas of the program that were still, to an extent, of higher concern, but overall not entirely necessary.
We have found that we need more feedback from students in regards to the efficiency, accessibility and availability of the wellbeing system. As well as if we were to implement a new platform for the booking system, would it become less/more confidential for users? Moreover, will we need to employ more wellbeing counsellors since there is such a high demand for them
Our first plan of action was to create a survey to target Uni High’s mental health program with response from its students. Based on our responses, we found that the wellbeing counsellors are friendly and approachable. However, the students held a belief that the website was not easily accessible, nor were the mental health concerns of students addressed enough.
From here, we sent an email to the wellbeing counsellors addressing our responses from the survey to which they replied with the already present features of the wellbeing website. As of today, the booking system is a google form which comes with its pros and cons. The wellbeing website is many clicks away from the UHS website and Compass which is not convenient but it is not extremely inaccessible.
As a group, we believe that for the future of the wellbeing program, in regards to the booking system, it could be a different platform. One which would be more professional and well organised. Depending on which platform is used, there would still be a concern of anonymity of the users. Furthermore, the wellbeing booking system/website should be less than a few clicks away via the UHS website and Compass. The greatest concern overall is the lack of wellbeing counsellors provided for students.
Due to the circumstances of the lockdown in Melbourne, there were many aspects to our project that could not be completed or even started. We had hoped to bring this concept forward to higher extents and to have achieved more, but this project has still broadened our perceptions on how we could make better changes for the future.
We would love to know what you think should be improved on the wellbeing system at UHS!
Attached, is a resource that lists useful 24/hour Mental Health Services.
If you have any inquiries, comments or feedback, let us know by commenting down below, emailing us directly through our ‘Contact’ page, or messaging us through:
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Gmail: ubiqueteam@gmail.com