A review of KDU Support Centre

Abstract

Abstract: The aim of this study is to find the nature of problems and the demographic characteristics of the service seekers of KDU support centre which was established 2019. It will also look at the required future directions of KDU support centre. Mental health issues among the university students are becoming an alarming problem worldwide. Recent reports reveal that the situation is the same in the Sri Lankan student community. Foreign and local studies indicte that there are multiple contributing factors to these issues includng academic, relationship, logistic (food and accomodation, adjustment etc). Kotelawala Defence University has its unique culture compared to any other university in the country being the only university which produce military professionals to the nation, enlisting student not only based on their Z score and conducting psychological assesment before students are selected. After reporting few suicidal incidences among the students and various behavioural issues among the KDU the department of psychiatry and administration decided toestablish a support center in August 2019 with the aim of helping the KDU students and the staff with psychological counselling and psycho therapy. This paper summarises details of only the psychological issues reported to the KDU support center by 35 KDU students 10 satff members and their demographic and other related information without divulging their identity. Findings indicated that the most common psychological issue among students was depression. It was observed that most of the service seekers had several comorbidities. Further, relationship issues, adjustment issues and anxiety were prominent in this sample. It was observed that stigma towards mental illness is still playing a considerable role for not seeking help for mental health issues.It is recommended to take necessary actions to minimize stigma within the university community. KDU helpline which was recently started will be main referral pathway for KDU Support centre in future.

Keywords— KDU support center, psychological issues in University students, prevelance