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The Executive Vice President of the Council of Rectors, Emilio Rodríguez, stated that “mental health is not just a problem for universities; it is a societal problem. Therefore, we believe it must be addressed systemically. This means working on prevention and promotion, as well as addressing emerging needs.”.
To make progress on this issue, the CRUCH University Coexistence and Mental Health Commission, which presented its work during the session, indicated that inter-institutional and inter-sectoral coordination is essential, in order to then address the challenges of generating public policy proposals for Higher Education and promoting research initiatives and knowledge generation in these matters.
Mental health and university coexistence were the central themes in the session of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH) this Thursday, April 25, which took place at the University of Magallanes, in Punta Arenas.
Based on a presentation by the CRUCH University Coexistence and Mental Health Commission, the rectors of the plenary, as well as the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Víctor Orellana, learned about the main advances of this body in the last two years, the lessons learned, critical issues and upcoming challenges.
“We want to contribute with suggestions, with public policy proposals and work jointly with the Executive, in order to achieve comprehensive development in this area, without prejudice to also wanting to participate in some legislative processes that may be carried out, because we believe that it is necessary to give a vision from where things happen, from reality,” said the executive vice president of CRUCH, rector Emilio Rodríguez.
According to the rector of UMAG, José Maripani, “listening to what the commission shows us regarding what is happening in mental health is a matter that concerns us all. We are all affected in this context, and we always question what can be done, because there are activities that are related to public health.”.
For his part, the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Víctor Orellana, valued the recommendations and the work of the Commission, highlighting the joint work that the Undersecretariat and CRUCH have carried out in this and other matters.
“Chile faces a significant challenge in the area of mental health. It is a very important issue and of great interest to students (...), studies are meant to make us happy and allow us to enjoy our time in higher education, not to experience it as a source of stress,” stated the Undersecretary, who also indicated that work is underway to modernize training processes and incorporate a support system for everyone.
Along those lines, Orellana announced that on May 9th, a report of recommendations and guidelines for the Higher Education system will be released, prepared by the Mental Health Advisory Council for Higher Education of the Undersecretariat of Higher Education, in which representatives of the CRUCH commission also participate.
“We believe that we must work effectively together among the CRUCH institutions, because the best in the country are here, and hand in hand with the Undersecretariat of Higher Education, because that is where public policies are designed,” commented the executive vice president.
Prevention and promotion
While CRUCH universities have strategies and actions in place to support students, “we understand that this is a major public health issue. Mental health is not just a university problem; it’s a societal problem. Therefore, we believe it must be addressed systemically. This means working on prevention and promotion, as well as addressing emerging needs,” stated Emilio Rodríguez, Rector of the University of Tarapacá.
Regarding promotion and prevention, “one of the areas where we need to make significant progress is, for example, reducing the academic workload that students are taking on,” the rector stated. He added, “In this context, I think there is considerable agreement with what the undersecretary is proposing in terms of modernizing Chilean higher education, with the goal of having reasonable workloads. Studies shouldn't be a source of suffering, but rather a part of life, and we believe that's where we need to work together.”.
Finally, Rodríguez stated that “today we must ensure that the learning process is interesting and meaningful for those who are learning, which implies a long-term redesign. But we also have to address the short term, and the commission's suggestions are geared toward that. Therefore, we will continue working in the coming months, and without prejudice to the work that the Undersecretariat is doing with the Council, we at CRUCH will continue to reinforce it with new proposals and suggestions.”.
Lessons learned and upcoming challenges for the Commission
Since its inception, the Commission has worked to identify critical issues surrounding university life and mental health. This has led them to conclude that the first step in making progress in these areas is inter-institutional and inter-sectoral coordination, recognizing the different levels and expressions of the problems, and thus being able to build efficient referral and/or intervention channels.
Also, among the lessons learned, the need to advance in was noted: research that provides scientific evidence for the interventions carried out; institutional appropriation; promoting a positive and preventive management of conflict; as well as considering university coexistence and mental health in all spaces of interaction and co-care as a shared responsibility.
Considering the above, the Commission proposed a work plan based on the principles of mainstreaming, co-responsibility, intersectorality, and intentionality. The main challenges are developing public policy proposals for Higher Education and promoting research and knowledge generation initiatives in these areas.
According to the presidents of the Commission, Rosa María Olave, from the Alberto Hurtado University (UAH), and Bertha Escobar, from the Catholic University of Temuco (UCT), this implies the development of guidelines for the promotion of Coexistence and Mental Health in CRUCH universities and a restructuring of the working commissions in three main areas: systematization, activities and editorial committee.
The commission
The University Coexistence and Mental Health Commission was created by CRUCH in July 2022, with the objective of gathering experiences from universities, sharing good practices, proposing lines of action for the promotion of good coexistence and mental health, and improving the quality of life of students.
The commission is made up of 22 experts from 21 CRUCH universities and is linked to the full Council through the participation of the rectors of the University of Chile (UChile), Rosa Devés; the Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences (UMCE), Elisa Araya; and the rector of the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC), Ignacio Sánchez.
Text: CRUCH Communications
Photos: UMAG Communications and CRUCH Communications
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