Azlan Othman
A virtual Mental Health Management Workshop According to Islamic Psychospiritual: ‘Overcome Depression, Control Stress’ came to a close recently. The two-day workshop was attended by 230 participants from Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.
On the second day of the workshop, mental health activist Dr Siti Nur Afifah delivered a talk entitled ‘Psychological and Mental Health First Aid.’
She emphasised the importance of providing first aid for those with psychology and mental health problems through the three cores of psychological first aid (PFA) – seeing, listening and, communicating, in addition to the five cores of mental health first aid (MHFA): approaching, listening without punishing, providing reassurance and reasonable information, encouraging to seek professional help, as well as encouraging self -help.
In this way it will be able to reduce emotional stress, as well as provide support for patients to return to optimal functioning, while preventing them from experiencing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to crisis, she said.
Visiting counsellor from Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA) Haji Ali Yusri bin Abdul Gapor shared five aspects that need to be controlled and balanced in facing challenges related to mental health. They are: emotional, physical, spiritual, mental, and holistic in his talk ‘Being Resilient, Being Positive’.
The workshop was organised by the International Affairs Division of Universiti Teknologi MARA (Kelantan Branch), together with the Alumni Affairs Office, Career Development and Industry Networking Office, and the Counselling Unit, Student Affairs Division at UNISSA.
The workshop also aimed at building public awareness on mental illness, especially anxiety and depression, in addition to providing skills especially to lecturers, alumni and university students to identify and manage persistent mental health problems (emotional stress), depression and emotional problems, behaviour and mental problems.
