UNAIR NEWS – Academic pressures and demands, busy lecture activities, responsibilities for those who join the organization, external problems such as social life and economic conditions make stress or depression common to be experienced by a student. Most students try not to tell their personal problems to others and tend to keep them to themselves> However, they may disrupt their activities and lives.
In response to this issue, a group of students from the Faculty of Public Health (FKM) from PSDKU Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) in Banyuwangi took the initiative to establish a mental health counseling institute for students named Sobat Sebaya.
Interviewed by UNAIR NEWS team on Saturday (14/12), Ahmad Rido’I Yuda Prayogi, head of this institute, said that it started from a lecturer’s research in 2014, stating that almost 90% of PSDKU students experienced depression. So, Yuda and several friends from FKM took the initiative to create a counselor institute.
“This institute is under the PSDKU management directly and not from ORMAWA, which will later become a counselor for everyone, not only PSDKU students who experience stress and want to consult,” explained Yuda.
Regarding client privacy, he added, we will guarantee confidentiality through a contract agreed before the consultation, which states everything conveyed later will be privacy between counselor and their clients, and other counselors will not know about other clients’ problems.
Members of this counseling group are not only FKM students, Yuda and his friends also hold an Open Recruitment through several stages of selection to find students who are capable of self-management so that they can become counselors.
“For the selection stage, it starts from administrative selection, then psychological tests which include IDSSR and K10 tests and interviews, which of these psychological tests determine whether they are worthy of being peer-counselors or not and before handling clients they will be given training and assistance,” said Yuda.
Closing the interview with UNAIR NEWS, Yuda revealed that Sobat Sebaya had received funding from several agencies, and the funds will be used for their operations.
“We got funding from PSDKU, the Lentera Kaji research institute, and from an Australian institution where the funds will be used for Sobat Sebaya operations, such as logbooks and guidebooks, so clients will not be charged,” concluded Yuda.
Author: Ivan Syahrial Abidin
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
