On Wednesday, 29th May, Dr Busayo Obisakin, a counsellor from the Division of Student Affairs counselled students in the College of Health Sciences at the HSLT A auditorium on the causes and prevention of depression in the face of rising instances of suicide among university students. Present at the event were the Provost College of Health Sciences, Prof Kolawole, and the respective deans of the various faculties, including the Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Basic Medical Sciences, and others.
Dr. Mrs. Busayo Obisakin expressed the need for such counselling sessions due to the rising prominence of psychosocial issues and suicide tendencies among students in universities. The session, she explained, is aimed ‘to amplify effort in providing support and resources to those struggling with psychosocial and mental issues’.
During the session, she identified the causes of depression as an interplay of biological, psychological, environmental, and social factors. ‘Depression and suicidal thoughts can arise from a complex of many factors, including biological disorders such as serotonin or dopamine disorders; psychological factors like past traumatic experiences, and low self-esteem; environmental factors like financial problems; social factors like isolation, loneliness, lack of support from family and friends, and substance abuse’, she said.
Explaining further, she said although these factors are not precursory to cause depression by themselves, their occurrence in a generation that does not cope well with failure and pressure, unlike older generations, has increased their risk of causing depression.
READ ALSO: Tariff Hike: Maintenance Residents Groan Over Uncomfortable Electricity Policies
She encourages the students to acknowledge failure as part of life. ‘Failure is part of life’, she says. ‘When there is any kind of failure, ask what lesson you can learn from it, and let that failure move you forward’, she added. To prevent depression, and overcome the factors causing it, she counselled the students to build strong relationships, offer a sense of belonging to fellow students around them, engage in healthy coping strategies like exercises, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and set realistic goals.
‘You can not become like Otedola, like Dangote in a day’, she said. ‘You will get there, you will have the money, but let it be step by step’, she added. In the session, she also lamented the insufficiency of university counsellors for the entirety of the students popular on campus and the limited funding for the counselling unit. ‘We have only 6 counsellors in the university to cope with over 30,000 students on the campus’, she said.
However, she added that the unit is open to engaging student para-counsellors who can help identify students battling depression, or having suicidal tendencies, and can serve as a first point of contact before reaching out to the unit.
Concluding, she admonished students to always speak up, and reach out to the unit at the Division of Student Affairs, Room 6, when in need of counseling. ‘When you are at the level of decision making, see a counsellor; when you are stressed, see a counsellor; when you are confused about your personal growth, see a counsellor’, she said.