Reducing Stress in Youth, IPB University Students Create De-Stress Card
Mental health is less visible in reality but has an equally important role as physical health. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that mental health disorders begin to appear at the age of 14 years. This means that mental health disorders begin to show symptoms when the patient reaches adolescence.
According to the 2013 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas), six percent (about fourteen million people) of mental health disorders (emotional) cases shown through symptoms such as depression and panic or anxiety occurred in adolescents aged 15 years and over. This happened because adolescence is a transition period from child to adult, thus, there are many changes, including emotional, physical, cognitive and hormonal changes. The low awareness of adolescents on mental health can also be a factor in the increasing number of mental health disorders in adolescents.
Realizing the importance of adolescents in understanding their mental development tasks, five IPB University students namely Dian Puspita Sari, Avia Maulidina, Arrizky Galih, Renita Devinica and Vitriara Ahsana, formulated an educational medium that combines the role play card game method and the theory of adolescent development. Through the Student Creativity Program in Community Service (PKM-M), they created De-Stress Card.
Dian Puspita Sari said that De-Stress Card is a role play card game inspired by Citadels which incorporates game-based learning methods in it. In the Citadels game, the players will portray available characters and find solutions to the various situations they face.
"The uniqueness of the De-Stress Card itself is in the game method that packs the tasks of adolescent development in an interesting way. With a total of eight rounds of play, the players will portray certain characters to solve a number of daily teen problems related to the adolescent development. The De-Stress Card has also been implemented in a number of students joining the Youth Red Cross (PMR) of 3 Bogor State Senior High School," she said.
Dian Puspita Sari explained that for students, De-Stress Card can be an alternative educational game to spend time with friends, while for teachers, De-Stress Card can be a medium of mental health education in high school that can facilitate delivery of interactive and applicable material.
"We hope that every teenager or high school student has a concern and awareness of mental health. In addition, counseling teachers can be more active in increasing the awareness of their students regarding mental health. Hence, we introduce De-Stress Card which is an interactive and applicable educational medium and can be used continuously," she said.
The sustainability of this program is an important aspect of a community service program. Seeing that the main targets of this program are teenagers and high school students, it is expected that the teachers can socialize the De-Stress Card program continuously to the next generation of students in the school. (Awl/Zul/zsp)
