Great reception of the psychological support services for the UB community

 
 
Institutional
(29/04/2020)

The psychological support offered by the University of Barcelona to its community regarding the COVID-19 health crisis is being successfully accepted. The containment protocol activated by the Unit of Behavioural Therapy (UTC) at the Faculty of Psychology in the beginning of April registers more than thirty doubt submissions from the UB collectives. About half of the people who asked for the assistance are under continuous control.

Carmina Saldaña, professor from the Faculty of Psychology and director of UTC, gave a positive balance of the program: “When we presented it as a shock intervention in a time of crisis instead of a therapy, we thought it would be highly demanded and although we still receive requests of psychological assistance every day, this goes little by little, and it allows us to provide an answer to everyone. We are a unit with experience in crisis intervention and we are ready to help everyone”. This is why Professor Saldaña suggests not to wait before asking for help in situations of panic. First, she expects this service for the UB community, given by the eight experts she coordinates, to continue working at least until this summer.

 
 
Institutional
29/04/2020

The psychological support offered by the University of Barcelona to its community regarding the COVID-19 health crisis is being successfully accepted. The containment protocol activated by the Unit of Behavioural Therapy (UTC) at the Faculty of Psychology in the beginning of April registers more than thirty doubt submissions from the UB collectives. About half of the people who asked for the assistance are under continuous control.

Carmina Saldaña, professor from the Faculty of Psychology and director of UTC, gave a positive balance of the program: “When we presented it as a shock intervention in a time of crisis instead of a therapy, we thought it would be highly demanded and although we still receive requests of psychological assistance every day, this goes little by little, and it allows us to provide an answer to everyone. We are a unit with experience in crisis intervention and we are ready to help everyone”. This is why Professor Saldaña suggests not to wait before asking for help in situations of panic. First, she expects this service for the UB community, given by the eight experts she coordinates, to continue working at least until this summer.

So far, a great part of the requests are related to the academic tasks (difficulties for planning, concentration, changing learning models, changes in the syllabus, etc.), but there are other issues such as anxiety, stress, insomnia, sadness, lack of motivation and mourning, among others.

Requesting help between women and men has been quite equal, 60% to 40%, respectively. Regarding the UB collectives, most of these come from the students but not the youngest ones: “The average user is 28 years old, but we have answered students aged up to 44. These may be the most affected ones because it is hard for them to study, since they are at home with the family and find it hard to plan and focus and this can lead to stress, frustration and anxiety. Also, we have to consider that some of them lost a family member. Therefore, if we add this to mourning, and sometimes economic problems, anxiety, etc., these situations are very difficult”, says Saldaña. However, she notes that “students are the most determined ones and with less stigma to ask for help to a psychologist, at least in this situation, we surprisingly attend to more members from TRS and AdSS staff during the course”. There are also five international students among these members who request help: Erasmus students who stayed in Barcelona because they could not ho home, and some students from Asian and Latin countries, who left the country and see how their performance is worsening and they fear to lose their grants.

The most used format has been the online session, web conferences that last about 30 or 40 minutes “in order to offer a close treatment, which is hard to get via phone or email. However, some do not want this option because they lack privacy or because it is hard for them to talk to a stranger for the first time, and this is not a problem because we respond in the most comfortable way for them”, notes the professor. Apart from the two established contacts in the action protocol, all users have been given help guidelines via email, and relaxation techniques, specific planning guidelines, etc.

Professionals control whether they are able to work on these requests individually and if necessary, they send the case to experts. Although the emotional consequences derived from the health crisis are clear, Professor Saldaña is convinced that “these will increase when once we get out of this state of alarm we realize we cannot continue with our lives like before, although there will also be agoraphobia, and the psychological assistance demand will increase once the lockdown ends”.

Last, the expert recommends being flexible and valuing time: “we are not under normal conditions and we have to bear that in mind. We shouldnʼt be afraid of expressing and sharing emotions in mourning situations, or seeking for help. We have to be aware that escaping this situation will not be easy and we will be forced to live under control during a long time”.