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Thursday, March 28, 2024
<p>Nomfumo Manaba, a 23-year-old UF journalism and political science junior, video calls into her class at Library West. </p>

Nomfumo Manaba, a 23-year-old UF journalism and political science junior, video calls into her class at Library West. 

Jialong Zhen had a plan this spring.

After taking a gap year to decide whether studying psychology in college was right for him, the 19-year-old UF international freshman planned to study for five advanced placement exams from a small, noisy cafe in Shenzhen, China, and to move to Florida in August to start college in the U.S. with extra college credits.

But after China’s stay-at-home orders locked him indoors in January, he said he has been growing apart from his Chinese community and friends because his in-person and online communication has been so limited. And, he hasn’t been able to meet any of his new American classmates.

Zhen’s time in quarantine has been isolating and has nearly driven him into a depression, he said.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the international community in May of an impending global mental health crisis caused by quarantine-induced isolation and financial stress, the UN wrote.

The American Psychological Association has also begun to discuss COVID-19’s impact on mental health, said UF Counseling and Wellness Center clinical assistant Dr. Saloni Taneja. Students may struggle with social isolation, a sense of helplessness and hopelessness, and a loss of routine and structure, fellow CWC clinical assistant Dr. Sneha Pitre wrote in an email to The Alligator.

So Taneja and Pitre decided to find ways to support UF students by opening the floor to discussion, they said.

UF’s CWC announced in early May that it created Making Sense of COVID-19, a weekly virtual support group to help UF students cope with and make sense of their thoughts and emotions from COVID-19, Taneja said.

The virtual support group’s launch date has not been set yet, Taneja said.

The group will provide a communal space for members to talk about COVID-19 and support each other, she said.

After Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in March that four UF students tested positive for COVID-19, the university transitioned to online courses. The CWC began to offer remote therapy appointments shortly after through phone calls and telehealth, a HIPAA-certified video conferencing call offered through Zoom.

In addition to its support group, the center will continue to offer individual therapy sessions and 24-hour crisis counseling remotely this Summer, according to its website.

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Rachel Hines, an ambassador for the CWC’s student mental health advocacy program Awareness Wellness Ambassadors Reaching Everyone (AWARE), said she plans to join the group.

While preparing for the MCAT and adjusting to online courses from her family’s home in Delray Beach, the 21-year-old UF music performance senior said she struggled to stay productive.

The uncertainty of COVID-19 and the transition to online classes has increased Hines’ feelings of anxiety and restlessness, which have caused her to have pent up energy and not focus on her online physics lectures, she said. She hopes joining the CWC’s virtual support group will ease those feelings and give her the opportunity to meet new people, she said.

“It’s just really helpful for me to talk to other people who have the same anxieties about it,” Hines said. “It helps honestly to connect with different people and classmates, it’s pretty comforting.”

Interested students can enroll in the group any time this Summer. They can call the CWC at 352- 392-1575 to join, according to Pitre and Taneja. Participants will schedule a triage appointment, decide if group therapy is a fit and wait for Taneja and Pitre to contact them to discuss what the student hopes to achieve by joining. Then, Taneja and Pitre will provide the login information to join the weekly group therapy Zoom calls, they said.

To enter the session, students must enter a password to be accepted from a waiting room by Taneja or Pitre, they said. Sessions will be locked to ensure patient confidentiality.

Zhen said he hopes the support group will help him form connections with other people. He said he wants to communicate with future classmates while discussing his trouble focusing and lack of motivation when studying in quarantine, he said.

“It will feel much better to just discuss this hard time with people,” Zhen said. “I think this will make me feel better.”

Contact Diane at dhernandez@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @dianehern19.

Nomfumo Manaba, a 23-year-old UF journalism and political science junior, video calls into her class at Library West. 

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