An African student named Cylis had taken out a private loan in his home town to study in Canada. The loan interest may have been high but the payoff, he believed, was worth the financial risk. He would return with a degree and the family breadwinner would soon reach a higher rung of respectability and earning power back in his home country. That plan would not only fall flat, as was described at a recent conference looking at international students and mental health, but would offer a sobering case study of how universities need to be aware of the warning signs and vulnerabilities facing foreign students.

Wayne Myles, Director of Queen's University International Centre in Kingston, Ontario, recounted the story of Cylis (not his real name) at a recent conference organised by the Canadian Bureau for International Education and held in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Myles told the story of Cylis before introducing speaker Mike Condra, the university's director of counselling and a professor of psychology. Condra then led a three-hour session on preventing and intervening in cases where international students find themselves suffering intense psychological episodes.

Cylis' first difficulties emerged when the Canadian government issued his student visa much too late. He arrived on campus three weeks after the start of his intensive one-year programme. Not only would he have to orient himself to a university and country that were entirely unfamiliar, he would also have to catch up with the other students.

No matter how hard he tried, he could not get back on track. His marks began to suffer and he was given a warning that he had better shape up. The marks and warning only made him more anxious and less able to concentrate and he began to show signs of depression.

By Christmas he was asked to leave the programme and he began to regress. He took to starving himself, believing he could exorcise the demons that at this point he believed were in his body.

Myles says that despite a tripling of international student numbers on Canadian campuses in the last 10 years, little has been done to increase support services and that the system is still built on the assumption of delivering services to domestic students.

Condra echoed his sentiment and added it was vital for international educators to develop a solid and fairly sophisticated understanding of mental health and mental illness. Not that it was necessary to have a medical team at the ready, but to simply have access to the appropriate services on campus and have good links to the community.

International students faced the same challenges and stresses that confronted domestic students, Condra said, from the academic to time-management issues. But as a group, they also faced a set of unique challenges, such as significant cultural adaptation, prolonged periods of loneliness and an unfamiliar and uncomfortable social support system.

In some cases, these challenges overwhelmed students' capacities for coping and resulted in the development of significant mental health problems. "Do you know the difference between sadness and depression?" he asked the audience of some 200. "Two weeks."

Condra said universities had to develop a system that could spot the student who was vulnerable, and do that by Day 10, long before they showed the extreme signs that Cylis was exhibiting.

"We have to be aware of the amber flags," he said, adding that intervention had to occur before a person was beyond academic intervention. Awareness of mental illness had to go further than a senior administrator's words.

International student centres should work with others, such as student groups, to de-stigmatise mental illness and spread the word about its risks. One group of students at his university helped organise an event called Hugs vs Drugs, which drew more than 150 attendees.

Quentin Hughson, Student Life Coordinator at Okanogan College in British Columbia, said about 10% of his 523 international students needed some sort of psychological attention.

Hughson's department keeps in close contact with students through a team of cultural liaison officers who can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, Korean and Japanese. They check on the students to see if they're making friends, eating properly and settling in.

He had one situation where he received a call from his home-stay coordinator after a student's off-campus host found she was drinking too much. The host reported that the young woman was at times drinking alone and other times drunkenly stumbling in late.

Despite the student denying having any problems with alcohol, Hughson asked her if she would be willing to see a nurse. She agreed and she and the nurse talked about what appeared to be a case of depression. Counselling was set up and a new home-stay was found where the student thrived in the new setting.

While there are some privacy issues facing those who work with international students and are concerned about their mental state, Condra said there was much that could be done by simply calling a counselling office, describing the situation, and then getting some direction from a qualified professional.
"There's a tremendous amount of information that can be shared long before it becomes an imminent risk," he said.
philip.fine@uw-news.com


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