Read the following passage about managing change and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 31 to 40.
Growing up in Athens, Greece, Lydia Borsi remembers feeling tested when she tried to deal with mental health issues. Borsi says she had been seeing a therapist for anxiety. But she notes that people in Greece do not openly discuss mental health issues, which also get little attention in general healthcare services. “It was a lot more secretive. And people thought that I was a lot more unique,” Borsi said.
That all changed in 2017 when she moved to the United States to study at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. “When I came here, I really liked that people were not afraid to speak up about mental health and say that it’s important,” she said. The university was very supportive of her needs and offered plenty of information. She also became involved with a school group called Active Minds that helps students deal with mental health issues. [A]
Then due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, the University of Rochester had to move all its classes and some of its mental health resources online. Luckily, Borsi was able to connect with a mental health expert outside the school, in the local community. [B]
But as many of her American friends returned home, Borsi was stuck. Greece had succeeded in limiting the spread of the virus within its borders, but flights there from the U.S. are barred until July. Also, the health crisis has put her plans to seek admission to medical school in Britain on hold. [C] And she is not alone.
[D] In April, Active Minds launched a survey of over 2,000 students at U.S. colleges and universities. The study found that over 80 percent of those asked said the coronavirus crisis had negatively affected their mental health. One in five said it has affected them severely.
Laura Horne, chief program officer at Active Minds, says the findings are especially troubling given that the crisis is only going to make it harder for colleges and universities to help these students. “Colleges and universities had to pivot rather quickly to respond to COVID-19 and figure out all facets of university life, including mental health services. Now they have to figure out how to communicate with students,” Horne said.
Frank Chen is a Houston, Texas-based psychiatrist who has worked with college-age young adults. He points out that individuals at that age are in an important stage of their mental development. And college can be a difficult experience for students with or without mental health issues, as they balance work, studies, and personal relationships. Adding a major world event, like the spread of the coronavirus, makes it very difficult to predict what the long-term psychological effects might be. “I don’t think that there’s another event in the history of the people who are alive now that can really measure up to this,” said Chen.
What does Frank Chen mean when he says, ‘I don’t think that there’s another event in the history of the people who are alive now that can really measure up to this’?
