Praise be to Allah Almighty God, Health Psychology International Short Course which was held by the Faculty of Psychology, YARSI University from late February to early March 2024 was held smoothly and successfully. As for the title of short courses this is “Byte-sized Resilience: Mental Wellness for Society 5.0 and Beyond SDGs”. This theme was carried out as the Faculty of Psychology at YARSI University emphasized the color of Health Psychology in its vision and mission and activities, as well as an effort to participate in the success of SDGs goals related to health, welfare, equality and the environment. Short courses divided into four courses, each held over 4 separate days via Zoom meeting. The four courses are Mental Health First Aid, Digital Gender Divide, Community Resilience For Better Mental Health, and Mental Health, Climate Change, and Food Security. Unmitigated, each course is taught by international speakers, namely Christina M. Antonites, PH.D. from the University of Cape Town-South Africa, Dr. Amalia binti Madihie from Universiti of Malaysia-Sarawak, John Paul Cauchi, Ph.D. from Queen Mary University of London, Malta Campus, and Ratih Arruum Listiyandini, Ph.D. who is a teaching staff at the YARSI Faculty of Psychology and has just completed his studies at the University of New South Wales-Australia.
On the course Mental Health First Aid, Ratih Arruum Listiyandini, Ph.D. introduce concepts related to global and specific mental health issues, prevalence and risks, as well as symptoms. Ratih Arruum also provided tips and exercises for participants as first aider to deal with these mental health issues. While the course Digital Gender Divide discusses digital security issues and gender inequality in the digital sphere. Christina M. Antonites, Ph.D. invite participants to discuss and take lessons from cases in an effort to create digital citizenship who is resilient. Topics related to resilience were presented by Dr. Amalia Madihie in Community Resilience for Better Mental Health. Dr. Amalia discussed the importance of positive relationships with the people closest to us in developing resilience. He also invited participants to discuss and reflect on the relationships that participants had had and introduced the resilience therapy he had developed. Topics that are no less exciting and relevant to the SDGs goals related to health and the environment are Mental Health, Climate Change, and Food Security presented by John Paul Cauchi, Ph.D. Dr. Cauchi explained that extreme weather changes, prolonged droughts, hurricanes, rising sea levels, are among the signs of world climate change. This is due to the high greenhouse effect, human behavior and environmental management. These changes can affect the condition of land and waters, thereby threatening the life of the ecosystem, including humans in it. Dr. Cauchi also invites discussion about how we need to think and act in context planetary health starting from oneself, the community, to cross sectors and government.
On average, the course is attended by 13 to 20 participants. Like the speakers, these participants also came from various countries, namely the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia. This of course further enhances the name of YARSI University, especially the Faculty of Psychology, as an international standard campus, as well as increasing YARSI's role in academic forums at the world level. Moreover, participants from other countries seemed enthusiastic about taking part short courses which was organized by the Faculty of Psychology, some of them even showed off their participation on social media accounts.
Apart from increasing the role of YARSI University in academic relations at the international level, organizing short courses It is also hoped that this can support the international accreditation process currently being carried out by YARSI University. Maintenance short courses This is also an effort to expand the collaboration network with campuses from other countries in the tridharma activities of higher education such as teaching, research and community service. It doesn't stop here, event short courses This itself is part of a series of activities leading up to the National Conference on Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, YARSI University, which is scheduled to be held next September. Besides short courses, another program that will follow in the near future is workshop in educational, clinical, and industrial and organizational psychology.
