EASE THE BREEZE – AMSA-Kyrgyzstan

Name of the activity: EASE THE BREEZE

Country/NMO: AMSA-Kyrgyzstan

Program: Mental Health

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: First-time Activity

Category: Campaign

Focus area: Mental Health promotion and Prevention, Mental Health advocacy and public awareness, Dangers of substance abuse, Mental Health among Medical Students

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 4 (Quality Education)

General description:

The Mental Health activity was hosted in 7 cities in Greece. It lasted for 4 hours and educated participants about mental health problems encountered by healthcare professionals and how to deal with them. It included presentations from psychiatrists and experts, as well as an interactive Open Space Discussion in which participants had the chance to talk directly to various healthcare professionals from various backgrounds and stages in their career.

Problem statement:

The number of people suffering from mental disorders is growing from year to year in Kyrgyzstan. The Republican Center for Psychiatry and Narcology reports.

According to the center, 54,453 people are under inpatient supervision, 31,300 of them are men and 23,100 are women. It is the most trending health issue in the world and

sometimes it’s left unspoken and ignored. In order to highlight the importance of person’s mental health and his/her condition in this neglecting world.

Target groups:

• General population
• Medical students
• Other Students
• Youth
• Women
• Elderly people

Beneficiaries:

• General population
• Medical students
• Other Students
• Youth
• Women
• Elderly people

Objectives:

1.To aware 90% of medical students and the local community of kyrgyzstan about the mental health and improve the mental health within period of 2 weeks 

2.To introduce 80% participants to a psychiatrist and discuss about how they are feeling about their mental health and how they can improve their situations. 

3.To allow 50% of participants to share verbally how they felt after attending the session. 

4.To allow 100% of participants to fill the questionnaire about how satisfied they are with every aspect of sessions.

Indicators:

Combining both the offline and online facilitator sessions around 140 students attended the session. Students had face-to-face interaction with the facilitator and their queries were solved. Educated people about signs of mental illness, tips for maintaining balanced lifestyle and prevent mental health issues. People found pamphlets very useful and appreciated us for our campaign. Broke the stigma in the community by encouraging the people to share their stories based on their real life experiences. Rolled out astonishing results about common mental health issues faced by the student community by our post survey analysis. Personal 1on1 session was conducted with a psychiatrist who were facing problems. Educated the local community about mental health illnesses and recovery plan effectively by our pamphlet distribution event and the people about details of large variety of mental health disorders on our Instagram handle. 

Methodology:

29th  November 2022 to 4th  December 2022 – Google Forms regarding Mental Health Survey. 

Platform: Google form 

5th December 2022:-Facilitator Conference-IHSM Central Campus. (Yellow color dressing) 

Platform:-offline 

6th December 2022:- Facilitator conference- ISM – IUK east campus. (Yellow color dressing)

Platform: offline 

7th December 2022 – Presentation competition on mental health. 

Platform: Offline 

8th December 2022- Pamphlet distribution 

Platform: offline 

Location: public places 

1st December 2022 – 10th December 2022- Online Story Sharing Regarding Experiences of mental health. Platform: Online 

Location: Instagram

Plans for evaluation:

After conducting the Post Survey Form Analysis- We found out that 158 students filled the form and out of them.

32.9% of the students are somewhat satisfied with their life in college. 50% of the students don’t eat much. 54.4% of the students have had problems with daily life because of emotional stress. 32.3% of students think their mental health affects their ability to work. Those who asked for 1on1 session in the survey form they were given consultation by a psychiatrist.

Pre-activity Evaluation- Medical Students were told to fill the survey form which included General questions and DASS(Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale) 21 questions.

It covered all the objectives and goals on large scale.

External collaborations:

None