Cindy Sternberg – The Voice https://www.voicemagazine.org By AU Students, For AU Students Fri, 16 Aug 2019 19:09:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.voicemagazine.org/app/uploads/cropped-voicemark-large-32x32.png Cindy Sternberg – The Voice https://www.voicemagazine.org 32 32 137402384 Help is Out There https://www.voicemagazine.org/2019/08/16/help-is-out-there/ https://www.voicemagazine.org/2019/08/16/help-is-out-there/#respond Fri, 16 Aug 2019 20:50:20 +0000 https://www.voicemagazine.org/?p=28592 Read more »]]> Anxiety affects every facet of a student’s life, and stress is a significant roadblock to our success. There are deadlines and coursework in multiple courses, exams looming, home-life, and expenses and responsibilities to consider. Taken all in one day, we can burden ourselves into a massive anxiety attack. This attack can take hours to resolve, with or without medication, then all of the things we mean to do on that day are delayed. The worry about missing those hours compounds the problem, possibly ending a student’s career before reaching their degree.

But Athabasca University has created a strong support network to help students cope with day to day struggles. Through careful acknowledgement of the problems an online learner may face, Athabasca University has taken steps to assist us in all areas of mental health and educational counselling. There is help for students suffering from anxiety, whether due to exams or just the day to day pressure that may accompany online learning. Mental health and wellness services are essential, and Athabasca University continues to recognize the need for mental health services.

These services were first provided by Athabasca University Student Union; they offered the Student Lifeline counselling from 2015 to the 2018 transition to Homewood Health Services now provided by AU. The new service presents the support of qualified mental health personnel, with a 24-hour helpline, as well as web-based support.  Sometimes, all a person needs is an impartial listener, but private counselling is available. AU’s site tells us that Homewood has service in 150 languages by certified staff with a minimum of a master’s level degree. Services are accessible by phone and any electronic device.

Homewood Health online topics include childcare and parenting, elder and family care, and grief and relationship counselling, with many other subjects available concerning our endeavours with online learning. Services cover all of the issues beyond school, because everything going on in life can intrude into learning hours. With online learning, our designated study hours are crucial, so it wouldn’t go over well to have work or legal issues distracting us. Moreover, Homewood Health offers everything from legal and financial information through to cognitive behavioural therapy online.

Along with mental health services, students will discover excellent counselling support in MY AU for other things such as academic progress and direction, because sometimes it is difficult to choose our educational path. Finding our way is more comfortable with qualified counsellors standing there at the entrance of the path, reaching out a helping hand to a suffering student. Take that hand!  Information regarding Homewood Health is available on the Athabasca University site along with Athabasca career counselling, Career Cruising and Undergraduate Student Orientation. Furthermore, AUSU still offers support though forums, bursaries, and other essential services like discounts on dental and eyewear.

So, anxiety and stress in the way? Connect with Homewood or AUSU right on your computer or phone any time. Let nothing stand in the way of your academic success.

References
http://counselling.athabascau.ca/student_support.php
https://news.athabascau.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Homewood-Health-Oct-2018.pdf
https://www.ausu.org/services/student-wellness/mentalhealth/
]]> https://www.voicemagazine.org/2019/08/16/help-is-out-there/feed/ 0 28592 The Long Term https://www.voicemagazine.org/2019/03/01/the-long-term/ https://www.voicemagazine.org/2019/03/01/the-long-term/#respond Fri, 01 Mar 2019 21:45:12 +0000 https://www.voicemagazine.org/?p=27129 Read more »]]> I am a chronic pain suffering student.  A little backgrounder takes me back to 2015.  I’m at work, cleaning coffee pots at McDonald’s while running the night shift.  I am cautious about where I stand, the sink leaks.  I asked the boss for the parts to fix it, I’d even do it myself.  They knew for months that it was leaking, I showed them the exact path the dribble of water takes on a steady basis.  They never got around to it, and, with a headset on and listening not only for co-workers losing it and black bears at the window, but cars at the speaker, I see a row of cars turn in, just by the reflection of their headlights in my glasses.  I turn and promptly slip on the sink drool, setting off an instant chain reaction.  My left foot stayed stuck to the dry, unwashed tiles, and my right foot slides pas as my lower back snaps hard to the left.  I heard a distinct sound as I drop half in the sink and half in the rolling coffee cart.  The sound is that of my L5 disc breaking, the sound of its pieces damaging my sciatic nerve root, permanently.  The sound of the end of my life as  known in 2015.

I’m still in battle with WSIB, Ontario’s compensation agency.  I hear the battle might end in my favour, and it cannot come soon enough.  The savings that graced my bank account now so long gone it’s barely a memory.

Last year I spent six weeks in a hotel under a glaring light sign in downtown Toronto.  RU.  It burned into the fore of my mind.  RU.  Ryerson University is way too far away from my home in Kenora, so, when I finally had enough of that sign and the pain clinic that taught us to hide the pain, I looked at my options.  I discovered Athabasca University, and the open concept gave me the right status to sign up.   I’m almost fifty years old, now.  Old people go to school too, some far older than I am.  I never completed high school, but, with a year and a half of university behind me, it doesn’t matter today.  I am working on the last half of a six-credit course, Children’s Literature.  I missed out on two other writing classes due to an error with OSAP and disability.

In September I had a heart attack.  A month later I was back at it, finishing the two writing courses I’d had in December.  I was sad to see them go.  This last one will be more difficult to finish.  I have just come through a vile dental abscess, and it may be systemic.  My brother almost died from a MRSA last year and was in hospital for three months.  I have been waiting to find out if I will be completing this long AU term or following my brother’s long path, instead.

As it turns out, I managed to accumulate enough to proceed with my next two courses!  I will be following my own path, one to education and future freedom.  I can’t wait to get my hands on the course materials, to lay them carefully on the shelf I’ve cleared for them.  I will soon add another six-foot-tall bookcase to the one already standing at the wall.  Cheer overcomes my illness, and the future is bright like a neon sign, only this sign reads AU!

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