We’re listening, so come and chat with us

Thank you Malaysia Outlook

By Azrol Ali

 |Jan 25, 2018

 Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on, or at least someone to listen to your concerns now and then.

In a bid to help people to cope with their problems before their  worries spiral into mental disorders, a group of Psychology Department students from Segi Kolej, Subang Jaya is providing the public voluntary services such as sharing and listening dubbed Sidewalk Talk.

This is the first of its kind project in Malaysia.The community project is organised by the Faculty of Psychology Education which is led by Mengzhen Lim. It provides opportunities for the public to express their concerns to volunteer trainee students.

Based on Lim’s observations, most individuals prefer to express their concerns rather than to seek advice.

Sidewalk Talk: Jangan pendam perasaan, luahkan

Thank you Malaysia Outlook. Source : http://www.malaysiaoutlook.com/2018/01/24/sidewalk-talk-jangan-pendam-perasaan-luahkan/

By Zura Ahmad and Azrol Ali

 |Jan 24, 2018

Adakah rakyat negara ini sedang berhadapan dengan masalah mental yang serius? Itu persoalan yang mungkin timbul apabila negara sering digemparkan dengan beberapa kejadian berkaitan masalah kesihatan mental.

Setiap kejadian yang berlaku menunjukkan bahawa mereka boleh dikatakan mempunyai simptom-simptom masalah kesihatan mental yang serius yang berpunca di tempat kerja, rumah serta tekanan perasaan atau stress.

Kebiasaannya, mereka yang mengalami masalah kesihatan mental ini tidak mampu untuk mengawal emosi dan berfikir secara positif serta akan bertindak secara melulu yang akhirnya mengakibatkan kemalangan sama ada kepada diri sendiri atau orang sekitar.

Bagi menyatakan sokongan dan mengatasi masalah mental yang semakin membimbangkan, sekumpulan 30 pelajar Jurusan Psikologi dari Segi Kolej, Subang Jaya menyediakan perkhidmatan mendengar iaitu Sidewalk Talk: you Talk, We Listen yang pertama di negara ini kepada orang ramai.

Projek komuniti yang dikelolakan pensyarah Fakulti Pendidikan Psikologi, Mengzhen Lim ini memberi peluang kepada orang ramai untuk meluahkan masalah kepada pelajar terlatih yang menyertainya secara sukarela.

Mengzhen berkata, kira-kira 80 orang telah menyertai sesi mendengar yang diadakan sejak lima bulan lalu.

“Ini adalah sistem sokongan kepada mereka yang ada masalah dan boleh duduk meluahkan masalah mereka dalam tempoh lima hingga 10 minit.

“Khidmat ini adalah percuma dan semua perbualan dirahsiakan,” katanya ketika ditemui di Subang Jaya, baru-baru ini.

Menurutnya, semua permasalahan yang diluahkan orang ramai ini akan direkodkan bagi membuat satu kajian mengenai kesihatan mental rakyat negara ini supaya dapat diperbaiki cara untuk mengatasinya pada masa depan.

Berdasarkan pemerhatian Mengzhen, kebanyakan individu lebih gemar untuk meluahkan masalah mereka daripada mendapatkan nasihat.

“Budaya kita ini, kalau orang beritahu masalah nanti akan bagi nasihat tetapi kita di sini hanya mendengar sahaja untuk mengenali dan tahu masalah mereka,” katanya.

Jelasnya lagi, pelajar yang terlibat juga diberikan pendedahan awal sebelum menjadi pendengar dan mempraktiskan empati kepada orang ramai supaya tidak memberi kesan kepada emosi mereka.

Pensyarah yang berusia 28 tahun itu berkata, kebanyakan individu yang menyertai projek mereka adalah berusia 18 hingga 25 tahun dan mengalami masalah seperti rumah tangga dan tekanan dalam pelajaran.

Mengzhen berkata, jika ada individu yang mengalami masalah yang memerlukan bantuan selanjutnya, pihaknya juga ada bekerjasama dengan Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Subang Jaya, Persatuan Kesihatan Mental Malaysia dan Befrienders Kuala Lumpur.

“Orang ramai tidak mengira usia dijemput untuk hadir untuk duduk berbual dengan kita dan ini adalah satu budaya sihat yang kita mahu ciptakan untuk komuniti,” katanya.

Sidewalk talk yang diadakan pada setiap hari Ahad bermula jam 5.30 hingga 7.30 malam di beberapa kawasan di Subang Jaya.

Orang ramai yang ingin mengetahui dengan lebih lanjut dan mengikuti sesi tersebut boleh layari PsychologyMalaysia.blogspot.my.

Menyimpan masalah, membiarkan topik yang tidak difahami berlalu begitu sahaja adalah antara tanggungan yang menjadikan masalah tertunggak dan semakin menghimpit jiwa anda.

Apabila ini berlaku, potensi diri akan tersembunyi, dan alangkah ruginya apabila masalah yang sedikit akan menjejaskan masa depan anda.

A listening ear on the sidewalk

By Melati A. Jalil Melati A. Jalil
https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/chinese/s/29518/ 

A GROUP of students and lecturers have started a community listening project aimed at erasing the stigma of mental health problems, which a government survey shows affected nearly one in three Malaysians.

The first of its kind in Asia, the “Sidewalk Talk Malaysia” project provides a listening ear to anyone who feels he has no one to talk about his problems.

Those with serious problems are advised on where they can go to for counselling and treatment.

“When someone listens to you, you will feel that you matter and are important,” said psychology lecturer Lim Mengzhen, one of sidewalk talk’s volunteers.

“The feeling that we want to create through this project is to make someone feel important. ‘That whatever I say, someone is listening’ – that’s how we promote good mental health,” Lim told The Malaysian Insight.

“We are giving voices to the people, all voices will be respected regardless of whether or not we agree or disagree with what is being said,” said Lim of SEGI College Subang Jaya.  

The project is inspired by a similar one that originated in San Francisco, US.

Sidewalk Talk Malaysia is the first community listening project in Asia, run by student and lecturer volunteers to promote the importance of human connection through empathic listening in public spaces. 

The group partnered with Malaysian Mental Health Association (MMHA), Befrienders Kuala Lumpur and Department of Social Welfare.

Sessions are held once every two weeks in two locations in the Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall. Each session lasts 10 minutes during which anyone can drop by talk and share anything he likes.

The project comes at a time when mental health problems are increasing, according to the 2015 national health and morbidity study.

In 2015, 2.2 million Malaysians aged 16 and above, or 29.2% of the population, experienced mental health problems.

This is a sharp increase from the 11.2% recorded in 2006.

Positive feelings  

Lim said the idea for the project came from the desire to educate the public on services psychologists provide and the importance of maintaining mental health.  

“After discussions between lecturers and students, we concluded that we needed to build our own support system, otherwise statistics will remain statistics.

“We thought of peer counselling at first, but realised that it’s difficult because you need to have licences. So, we swapped the idea of peer counselling with listening.”

Their research led them to Sidewalk Talk San Francisco. They wrote to the US group and the latter replied and trained the Malaysian volunteers. The group adapted the US module to fit Malaysian culture.   

Sidewalk Talk provides listeners who can communicate in English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil as well as Japanese.

At the moment, the team plans to continue the project until next April, before coming out with statistics to highlight the importance of the project.

About 30 student volunteers and lecturers from the psychology department have spent more than 100 hours on the project.

The statistics compiled from 77 individuals over five months have been encouraging.

Some 83.9% said they left feeling positive after a listening session. About 35.5% said they had no social support or people to listen to them.

The number one topic was family, (40.3% of participants), followed by academics (36.4%), friendship issues (26%), work (16.9%) and relationships (15.6%).

Empathy over advice  

The project’s organising committee chairman Shymala Chandran said the project is to provide a space for emphatic listening.

“We try to keep our empathy in the conversation. It means I listen to you, not with the intention to respond but I want you to feel that you are being heard,” she said.

“We have heard cases of students committing suicide, like for example because of UPSR results. People will ask why someone commits suicide over UPSR and they leave it at that.

“They don’t dwell further about the contributing factors that lead to suicide.

“By neglecting these contributing factors, suicide rates get higher.”

Lim stressed that the project did not provide crisis intervention, therapy or counselling.

“The reason we don’t give treatment is because people need listening ears, not advice. And we want to create equal feelings.

“And if you think you need help after we listen to you, we will share information on services or places you can go. Whether or not you want to go, is up to you.

“We are educating the public. So, we just give the right information to the people.”

And the sessions are not just for those with problems.

“People can just come and have a seat and talk about anything. For instance, if they got a promotion at work, we will be very happy to listen to them,” said Shymala.  

She said the group is looking for supporting partners who are willing to collaborate to expand the project.

“We want to expand our project. Right now, Sidewalk Talk Malaysia is under SEGi. If we gain enough support and help from other partners or organisations we can take it nationwide.” – December 27, 2017.