The State of Student Mental Health in
South Africa
The pandemic has been around for over two years now and has caused a tremendous rise in mental health issues. Along with the regular pressures that come with studying, students now have the added stress of coping with new ways of learning. And in many cases, their study or home environments are not ideal either.
A recent study showed that 65.2% of students felt that the pandemic has restricted their emotional functioning, 45.6% reported subjective experiences of anxiety and 35% reportedly experienced bouts of depression. Overall, 10.3% have considered suicide or engaged in self-harming behaviour, while 5.3% noted suicidal ideation (Visser and Law-van Wyk, 2021).
The key factors that contribute to these feelings were identified as academic concerns, social distance, isolation and coping skill.
Addressing These Challenges
According to Visser and Law-van Wyk (2021), universities should give special attention and support to high-risk undergraduate students. Holmes et al. (2020) and Marques et al. (2020) highlight the growth of mental health needs since the COVID-19 crisis and indicated that proactive steps must be taken to ‘flatten the mental health need curve’ before demand overwhelms the capacity of available services.
We understand the major challenges institutions are facing with mental health and digital wellness. In response we have carefully designed a mental & digital wellness and stress management workshop for students.
Source: M. Visser and E. Law-van Wyk, 2021. University students’ mental health and emotional wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown. South African Journal of Psychology, Vol. 51(2) 229–243
Who Is This For?
- High risk students (who are academically at risk to fail the year)
- Students who generally perform on a high level, but are currently struggling
.