Kanchi Uttamchandani | Assistant News Editor
Featured image: York’s Mindfulness Virtual Community project seeks to provide alternative mental health solutions. | Amir Yazdanparast
As many as 57 per cent of York students surveyed report moderate to high depression scores, and 32.9 per cent have moderate to high anxiety, according to a recent campus study conducted by York researchers.
In an attempt to reduce stress and anxiety prevalent among university students, the Mindfulness Virtual Community project at York, or MVC, is developing an innovative community designed according to principles of mindfulness.
The project was inspired by the well-documented effects of meditation in reducing stress and positively affecting the brain, an area of research that has been gaining momentum in the past decade.
Since its inception, the project has partnered with the Student Association for Health Management, Policy and Informatics; YFS and the Healthy Student Initiative.
MVC says that they are in a pilot research phase and will be inviting more student input and evaluation as they continue.
The app intends to provide education, an online forum and anonymous video conferencing sessions with psychologists.
The educational portion of the application will accept topics as suggested by York students, covering a range of issues from procrastination to anxiety, stigma, healthier body image and even career building. These will be delivered via text, audio and video formats, followed by a “mindfulness-audio” track tailored to each subject.
The online forum will be moderated by a trained psychologist, allowing students to share their personal stories, as well as connect with fellow students in a safe and anonymous online environment.
In addition, an anonymous 20-minute video conferencing feature with a psychologist will allow participants to discuss mindfulness practice, mental health and stress reduction.
Since its inception in January of 2016, the team has conducted eight focus groups and an online questionnaire in the Fall and Winter terms to capture York students’ perspectives on mental health. This was followed by a usability study in December 2016 to ensure the web interface is easy to use.
This month, they plan to start an eight-week long Randomized Control Trial, or RCT. Based on their findings and analyses, they expect to start a more extensive RCT in Fall 2017.
The team will measure user satisfaction and program adherence through online surveys and measurements of platform use, or the number of minutes spent using available resources, respectively.
Kinesiology professor Paul Ritvo explained in a comment to YFile that students desire to seek alternative health solutions, such as the e-health intervention that this project aims to provide, instead of seeking in-person support.
“The ultimate goal is to help students adopt mental health-promoting behaviours that reduce their needs to access psychiatric and/or clinical counselling services,” reads the MVC website.
MVC’s principal investigators are professors Christo El Morr and Farah Ahmad of the School of Health Policy & Management and professor Paul Ritvo of the School of Kinesiology & Health Science.
The MVC team also consists of several co-investigators and a technology partner. The project has been funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research.
