ISANA aims to ‘give international students a voice’

Recently, ISANA Lived Experience Toolkit, a winner of the Study NSW Partner Projects 2021/22 grant, decided to host a live collaboration event aimed to share the 'best-practice' experience of working with international students to understand the mental health difficulties and stress that students encounter.

The live event organised by ISANA's ACTive NSW branch, with Annette Kalczynska, the branch president involved major discussions on the best practices to tackle mental health issues and offer students a chance to open up on wellbeing and mental challenges. Participants from university counselling services, legal services, TAFEs, and other service providers also gave their thoughts on the topic.

The key takeaways from the live interaction will be included in one of the ISANA’s toolkit's chapters, in which international students will be given a voice and their stories and experiences will be shared.

ISANA and Story Is Connection intend to collaborate on a film for the toolkit. The film will be constructed into seven chapters, highlighting key issues and themes identified by students and key sectoral partners.

The process' overall goal is to allow international students with lived experience to share their thoughts and voice their mental health challenges and how they faced them. This will contribute to the development of a well-informed toolkit for practitioners and students alike, with a framework based on case examples.

At the same time, the initiative intends to raise awareness among teachers and service providers, as well as provide tools for facilitating dynamic discussions about mental health and wellbeing.