Encouraging mental health awareness among teachers

One segment of the higher education community whose mental health is often overlooked is the faculty. The pandemic has been very hard on them. As per an August 2020 study, Indian academics have been working under a very stressful atmosphere because of the ‘scrupulous isolation measures and closure of universities and colleges. The mental pressure has been described as ‘insurmountable’ raising the prevalence and rate of stress, anxiety and depression among them’. As per a report released by QS in December 2020, 61% of Indian faculty members experienced a moderate-severe rise in their stress and anxiety levels during the pandemic. To tackle this, it’s important to be aware of exactly what stressors beleaguer our academic community.

According to WHO, burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion. increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Indian higher education faculty members have had to make a lot of adjustments in terms of their professional lives, in a very short time.

The biggest one was of course the transition to online teaching.

As per the QS report alluded to earlier, 46% of Indian college faculty members experienced increased fatigue/exhaustion post the shift to online teaching. As many colleges begin to reopen, the burden of work is also expected to increase among the faculty.

This is because they will be required to teach over multiple channels - online (for students who haven’t returned to campus), and offline (for students who are present on-campus). Additionally, the UGC guidelines state that larger batches of students will need to be split into smaller groups to promote social distancing. This will mean that the number of lectures will also increase.

Family & personal health anxiety

The fear of contracting COVID-19 has pervaded almost every person’s mind, especially post the recent second wave. This fear leads to anxiety in faculty’s minds, anxiety about a family member getting infected or them getting themselves.

As per data from the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 90% of lives lost to COVID-19 were aged 40 years and older, and 69% of them were men. Considering that the retirement age in most colleges stands at 65 years and about 57% of the faculty members being male (as per a 2020 All India Survey for Higher Education released by the Ministry of HRD), this is certainly a population that is quite vulnerable to COVID-19. Additionally, many tend to have their parents staying with them, who are all usually above the age of 40 at least, there is more than enough reason for faculty members to worry about their family experiencing the ill-effects of COVID-19. To counter all these stressors and their effects, it’s important that steps are taken for mental health care at three levels:

Individual level

We need to empower our faculty members and help them become more resilient individuals. There are many ways to facilitate this. For this, their institutions must introduce stress management training, physical activity programs, and e-courses for selfhelp, and of course, professional therapy support.

Community level

These consist of communities like college departments. Academic institutes must make it mandatory for their respective communities including faculty to undergo training in psychological first aid and suicide gatekeeping. The goal here is to build peer support & a caring community culture.

Organisational level

Whether it be at the academic institutional level, or at the governmental level, we need to make sure that faculty mental health is the agenda at the leadership level. It’s our responsibility as a country and as a community to protect our teachers, to be there for them in their toughest times.