When wellbeing is in good shape, learning can take place

From Safer Community to Counselling and Equitable Learning Services, RMIT students can access these supports and networks from day one to the day they graduate.  Senior Manager of Wellbeing and Counselling, Mr Michael Tower shares the unique services RMIT University has been offering to students here in Vietnam so that they can progress successfully.

The shield, Safer Community

At RMIT, we are committed to providing a respectful and safe place to study and work. The Safer Community is like a shield for our students where we are able to provide confidential support to individuals if they have experienced threatening or concerning behaviour, or they are worried about someone else they want to help. 

What we do is to help students with safety plans. In some cases where there is a person of concern, we can work with both parties by putting in protective measures and working with person of concern as well. Since our community has become more aware of the services we have in place, there is an increase in number of requests for support with concerning behaviors, including bullying, cyber harm, threatening behavior, and discrimination/harassment. 

We know that students cannot focus on class and learn if they feel unsafe. Safer Community is something that is not just the work our team does, it is also the way we train our staff to be aware of how to recognise a student who is in a harmful situation. It is the commitment of all staff at RMIT. 

Foundation for a culture of care, Counselling Service

There are students who come to RMIT with a history of depression, anxiety, self-harm or even having thoughts of suicide. What our Counselling team can do have confidential appointments with students and provide workshops for the RMIT community to raise awareness about mental health so that staff and students can learn how to recognise a mental health concern in themselves or a friend. 

A lot of our students have never been to counselling service before or they feel ashamed about their mental health issues. Through our services and workshops, we help them understand that everybody has mental health just like we all have physical health, and our mental health will go up and down over the course of our life. So, there is no shame or stigma about accessing support and they don’t have to deal with it alone. 

Students can receive from six to ten sessions per concern. If they have a different concern later, they can always come back. We also provide coordinated care with external psychiatrists and counsellors to students who need additional support, such as longer term treatment and medication. For the first six months of 2023 only, we have delivered more than 560 counselling sessions to students.  

One of the good things about our faculty is that they are concerned about the mental health of their students in a very caring way. Some of them even walk their students into the Wellbeing office and help them book the first appointment. It shows how everybody within RMIT community cares for our students. 

No one left behind with the Equitable Learning Service

Equitable Learning Service (ELS) is celebrating 10 years of service this year. Currently in Vietnam, RMIT is the first and only higher education institution which can support the needs of students who are neurodiverse or living with a disability, mental health condition, a long-term health concern or having carer responsibilities impacting their educational participation through the provision of appropriate educational adjustments. Since 2017, the ELS initiated and launched the innovative Student Aid (SA) program to provide peer support for registered students with a range of circumstances.

SA staff are currently enrolled RMIT students who work in diverse roles as notetakers, exam scribes, readers and participation assistants in lectures, tutorials, practical sessions, exams, and field trips. They have received a comprehensive training about the inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility as part of their job preparation, and many of them appreciate what they have been offered. At RMIT, we are shaping the future industry leaders in Vietnam. Students who have the opportunity to serve and support people with disabilities during their time at university can bring that awareness and advocacy view into the industry and their professional lives. The impact might be far and beyond RMIT community. 

In May this year, the SA program was recognised as a champion of Accessibility in Action by the Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET) for exceptional work in furthering accessibility, diversity and inclusion for RMIT’s students. 

Looking to the future, while continuously boosting the specialised, individualised and confidential services that we have, we will focus more on promoting community education so that every single student has learning opportunities to understand about themselves and enhance our culture of care.  

Story: Ha Hoang