Reflective Essay on University Mental Health Day

This reflective essay describes the University Mental Health Day event and the different professions involved in promoting mental health and wellbeing. The author reflects on their experience and learns about the roles and responsibilities of healthcare professionals. The essay also highlights similarities and discrepancies in the roles of therapeutic recreation specialists, public health officers, health promotion officers, and health services managers. The author concludes that all professions work towards providing necessary services that promote the health and quality of life of patients.

Running head: ASSESSMENT 4
Reflective essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ASSESSMENT 4
Description of the event- The event was the University Mental Health Day, organised
at the Parramatta campus on April 26, 2018. The event was organised at the Western Sydney
University, with an aim of increasing our awareness on mental health and wellbeing needs. It
encouraged all the university staff across the campus to support us for managing our optimal
wellbeing. The event involved several activities such as, Healthy Headspace Hunt, where we
were provided the opportunity to showcase our productivity. This required us to form groups
with our peers and complete several activities that would promote our mental health. I
participate in the activities related to cooking demonstration and chocolate mindfulness. I
played the role of a volunteer and learnt the art of cooking a healthy meal with the samples
that were provided to us. The chocolate mindfulness at first seemed a little frivolous to me.
However, the activity helped me practice mindfulness meditation. I could reconnect with my
senses and considered the activity to be immensely valuable.
Description of the four professions- The role of a health promotion officer involves
caring about people and assisting them to achieve optimal health outcomes. These officer
require technical knowledge and skills to apply the social determinants of health and other
promotion models, while implementing health promotion programs (Malik, Blake & Suggs,
2014).
A therapeutic recreation specialist conducts activities that involves crafts, exercise,
and community outings, with the aim of assisting patients and disabled individuals to increase
or maintain their level of physical and mental wellbeing. These therapeutic specialists work
in hospitals, medical centres, and private rehabilitation facilities (Coyne & Fullerton, 2014).
These specialists utilise recreation or leisure as a major form of intervention to address needs
of their clients.

2ASSESSMENT 4
Public health officers have the role of focusing on the overall health of the
community, in place of individual patients. They conduct the responsibility of educating the
public on specific health risks and also provide information on healthy living strategies
(Beard et al., 2016). Furthermore, their role also requires them to create certain programs that
would minimize risks of the disease and prevent infection spread.
Health services managers, also known as healthcare administrators are involved in
planning, directing and coordinating medical and healthcare services, by managing an entire
health facility, clinical department or medical practice (Ozcan, 2014).
Reflective description- On the day of the event, there were three therapeutic
recreation specialists, and one health promotion officer at the University Campus. The
therapeutic recreation specialists organised events such as, the chocolate mindfulness training
and healthy headspace hunt. They helped us to select the games that involved our favourite
leisure activities, such as physical education, art and craft and problem thinking games. They
also ensured that all the equipment and materials necessary for the events were in place. The
senior recreation specialist directed the group activities that were aimed at improving our
awareness on mental health and functioning. She also promoted a sense of team work among
us.
The public health officer conducted a session through which they described the idea
behind hosting the event and also helped all students like us to understand the continuous
threats that our mental health and wellbeing are being subjected to. He also provided
information about necessary mental health resources that we can use for enhancing our
quality of life. In addition, presence of the health promotion officer and the health services
manager would have improved our health literacy, allowed us to make healthy lifestyle

3ASSESSMENT 4
choices for enhanced mental functioning and would also have provided a deeper
understanding of the functioning of the mental healthcare facilities.
Discrepancies or new things- Similarities were found in the role of a recreation
specialist owing to the fact that they have the role of planning and directing activities that aim
at development of appropriate group behaviour and also enhance interpersonal
communication skills and cooperation, in addition to supervising and instructing outdoor
team activities and athletic events (Dieser, 2013). The public health officer also showed
consistency with findings from academic literature that their role requires them to observe the
overall health status of the community to solve major health issues. Furthermore, the officer
also showed similarities with the literature in searching for innovative solutions and ideas,
with the aim of mitigating public health concerns (mental health in this context) (World
Health Organization, 2016).
However, one major discrepancy observed in this regard was associated to the fact
that a public health officer has the duty of notifying and empowering the general public
regarding the major health problems that they face. No such efforts were taken by the officer
in this context. Another new thing identified was that a therapeutic recreation specialist also
has the responsibility of teaching physical education, sanitation, hygiene and good personal
habits to their clients (Hood & Carruthers, 2013). Moreover, public health officers are also
involved in ensuring the presence of qualified public and personal health staff.
Reflection about things learned- Participation in the activity reinforced my thoughts
on pursuing a career of a therapeutic recreation specialist. I was able to understand that as a
recreation specialist, I will have to use sports, games and activities related to hobbies for
helping people suffering from any health challenge or disability. My interest in improving the
wellbeing of individuals who are in distress, owing to their health can be best pursued

4ASSESSMENT 4
through this career that will require me to provide treatment through recreation activities. I
will use dance, music, sports and arts and crafts for reducing the stress faced by my clients,
thereby improving their overall functioning and empowering them.
Conclusion- The activity helped me realise that all the aforementioned professions
have encompass the objective of working for the common good of the entire society. All the
four professions play a critical role in improving the quality and access of healthcare for the
population. Moreover, all professional pathways also work towards providing the necessary
services that would promote the health and quality of life of the patients. The course helped
in evolving my ideas on the roles and responsibilities of healthcare professionals and helped
me realise that the job of all professionals require them to deliver curative, preventive,
rehabilitative and promotional healthcare services in a systematic way to the individuals,
families and communities.

5ASSESSMENT 4
References
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