Yesterday I had the opportunity to deliver a short talk during our morning gathering at the Office of the Vice Chancellor. It was a little bit impromptu, and I’m in a middle of doing some readings on the latest literature on COVID-19 and its impact on psychological well-being. And so I chose to share with my office mates some of my thoughts based on the readings.

Firstly, I highlighted some of the insights I gained after going through my students’ reflections on their learning experiences during the MCO. The majority of them expressed their worries and were anxious especially when face-to-face classes were cancelled and were replaced by fully online learning. Their concerns have now become my personal concern, I told my officemates, who are mostly the non-academic staff.

Among the attendees were Datuk VC, Pro-VC (Strategy), Deputy Registrar of VC’s Office and the rest my colleagues at the Office.

I then shared the findings of an article I just finished reading entitled “The psychological impact of COVID-19 on the mental health in the general population” by Serafini et al. (2020). Among the points highlighted are the main psychological reactions in the general population which include pervasive anxiety, frustration, boredom and loneliness. One of the risk factors as being mentioned in the article is “alexithymia” which  literally defined as ‘no words for mood’ (p.4).

We then discussed the importance of acknowledging those who had been deeply affected by the pandemic; it could be among our family members or our colleagus. Lucky for UTM because the university’s Counselling Centre apparently offers the assistance to all staff the emotional support needed in order to face the challenge posed by COVID-19.

For further reading, the article by Serafini et al. (2020) can be accessed via this link https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7337855/