Arnold Wong
Six Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine students are taking home silver in the 2011 Heroes for Health challenge after developing a mental health website to help students experiencing depression, stress, burnout, and financial worry.
Arnold Wong, Brea Chouinard, Jiajie Wu, Junichi Tajino, Liliana Alvarez Jaramillo and Martha Funabashi are part of a 17-person interdisciplinary team that worked on the project.
"Young adults prefer to search health-related information online given its convenience and privacy," says team representative Arnold Wong, a PhD candidate in Rehabilitation Science. "We wanted to create a centralized website that incorporates mental health education with peer support and entertainment."
Wong says the team decided to focus its project on mental health after hearing results from the first University of Alberta National College Health Assessment Survey conducted in February 2011. The survey reported that although about 87 per cent of respondents felt overwhelmed and exhausted, only 11 per cent sought professional help from the university's health services.
"Our website can improve the mental health resilience skills of students and provide peer support through an online community," he says.
The first annual Heroes for Health challenge, an initiative of University Wellness Services, put $5,000 up for grabs and challenged contestants across campus to work in teams to develop ideas to improve student health at the U of A.
The winners of the monetary prize are The Health and Wellness Movement, a University of Alberta Students' Union group who proposed installing a year-round fruit and vegetable stand on campus.
"I think the point of having contests like this is not to declare a winner, but to raise awareness for everyone involved in the process," says Greg Kawchuk, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Wong's graduate supervisor. "Whenever you have a group of students creating a program for themselves, you know it will be highly relevant to their needs."
Although Wong and his team didn't take the first place prize, plans are in the works to translate the website into several languages to allow international students' to also take advantage of the site.
"Although we didn't win any financial support from UWS, we received a lot of positive feedback and support from both the judges and audience," he says. "Some of our team members have proposed modifying our original proposal and forming a student group to seek funding from other sources. Regardless of the results, it has been a golden opportunity for us to learn proposal writing, grant application and team management."
About the University of Alberta Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine
As the only free standing faculty of rehabilitation in Canada, the University of Alberta Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine balances its activities among learning, discovery and citizenship (including clinical practice). A research leader in musculoskeletal health, spinal cord injuries and common spinal disorders (back pain), the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine aims to improve the quality of life of citizens in our community. The three departments, Occupational Therapy (OT), Physical Therapy (PT) and Speech Pathology and Audiology (SPA) offer professional entry programs. The Faculty offers thesis-based MSc and PhD programs in Rehabilitation Science, attracting students from a variety of disciplines including OT, PT, SLP, psychology, physical education, medicine and engineering.