Tackle rising depression among university students

Failed relationships, financial worries, lack of necessary life skills and many other uncertainties including the pressure to get a good job after school — are vital to make university students live in mental anguish.

In the African traditional setting, having the opportunity of attending university means getting closer to achieving a-dream-come-true. The whole clan will leverage it as a wonderful career journey. Higher institutions of learning will equip you with Knowledge, shape life, and build relationships, among other opportunities.

ALSO READ: Check on your friends, they could be depressed

However, in the recent past, depression, a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest, is rising among university students.

According to a one-month survey (December 2021) conducted by scholars from African Health Sciences, an internationally-refereed journal that publishes articles in public health, the prevalence of mental health symptoms among university students in Uganda was 80.7 percent, 98.4 percent and 77.9 percent for depression, anxiety, and stress respectively. The findings suggested a high prevalence of the symptoms during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Researchers suggested that all stakeholders should keep a watch on students’ mental health. The aspect of increased societal pressure to achieve success and students lacking necessary life skills is skyrocketing the problem. The prospect of getting a job after graduation is also getting thinner.

ALSO READ: How depression could rise from social media

Early this month, Brian Wetaka, who recently graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Chemical Engineering in Kyambogo University, returned to his former lecture room block and reportedly committed suicide. The tragic incident warns of a looming time bomb.

Teachers, parents and the society should, therefore, prepare the mindset of students for the next stage of life. Parents should talk to their children about university expectations. It is a stage of life that either shapes or destroys their lives!

Last month, I engaged a student at Kyambogo University on how they juggle the social lifestyle and academics, I realised that the majority of them are lazy in executing their assignments and are never time conscious. For instance, she would wait up to the last hour to submit her coursework. This last-minute agitation is not healthy.

ALSO READ: How about the wave of depression that will hit us next?

Depression and anxiety among university students has also been propelled by financial crises and the uncertainties brought by Covid-19 that stalled many activities including destabilising the academic calendar. Today’s students are heavily indebted. One of the reasons many university students have mobile cash loans is because they live beyond their means.

Parents have an imperative task to train their children on financial management at a tender age. They need to know that one can only live according to their sustainable earnings and that going beyond to please one’s ego or be at par with fellow students is non-beneficial and builds a disastrous culture. Then there is the bombshell of failed relationships among students, sometimes resulting in physical fights and even death.

In most cases, the students who breakup develop low self-esteem because most of them are unable to cope with such developments. Childhood trauma such as sexual assault and family feuds are also partly to blame for depression.

ALSO READ: Dealing with postpartum depression

We must encourage reconstitution of mental health policies, programmes and practices in universities, with the availability of clubs, societies and sporting activities likely to be key in promoting student mental health and wellbeing. University teaching staff and policy technocrats at faculty level should be at the forefront of this.

Non-governmental Organisations and civil society should also partner with institutions of higher learning to ensure the students realise positive health, education and gender equality outcomes through sustained reductions in new HIVAids infections, unintended pregnancy, and gender-based violence.

Unless key stakeholders intervene, depression is the new pandemic that is spreading nimbly among university students and fresh graduates. This is the prime time for the ministries of Gender, Education and Health to liaise and drum up campaigns geared towards raising mentally healthy college graduates. Our MPs must also prioritise budget allocations that focus on the wellbeing of the young generation.

Mr Tonny  Musani is a journalist. [email protected]