The view from in here: Health and Counselling

Showing posts with label Health and Counselling. Show all posts

Breaking down the Barrier

People often tell me that they’re surprised I’ve lived as long as I have. I’m not sure if this a reference to the amount of exercise I do (none), the number of people I seem to offend (lots) or simply a dig at my diet (questionable at best).

The truth is I generally try to eat well. I’ll spend hours in my head planning out exquisite meals, full three course banquets that tick every nutritional box and should, in theory, make me a better person simply by eating them. I’ll settle, however, for a can of chicken soup and some toast made with bread that isn’t completely mouldy.

A big part of how well I eat comes from how much time I am willing to devote to my meals. While Jamie Oliver might be able to knock out a decent curry in thirty minutes and still have time to lecture people on the importance of eating well, I’m lucky if I’ve managed to find a clean fork after a half hour of rummaging. Finding clean crockery and cutlery is only a tiny amount of the time I use. I need to factor in time to allow things like potatoes to boil, to allow time for swearing when I realise I’ve forgotten to turn on the hob and boil the potatoes and finally time to allow for the amount of helpless weeping I’ll do when I scald my hand on boiling potato water. By the time I’ve cleared the potatoes off the floor, dried my tears and attended to my hand, my stomach is empty and I can hear the siren’s call of the tin opener.

Truth be told I am not really that bad a cook, though I have scalded my hand on hot potato water and developed a healthy respect for fire. I can make a variety of meals and I can make some of them quite well but still I find it hard to eat healthy. I’m certain much of it is laziness. I can make a pizza if I want one but I can also buy a frozen one for a fraction of the cost and that takes a fraction of the time. Factoring in the time washing up takes and you’re left choosing between something delicious that takes four or five hours and something that’s average and only takes twenty-five minutes.

So really, while the home-cooked meals can taste delicious and are much healthier, what it boils down to (get it?!) is that during exams and assignments I much prefer to eat the quick unhealthy food followed by a handful of multivitamins than take the long path. There is also the chance, however slight, that the multivitamins will react with the chemicals in the quick food and either kill me or grant me mutant powers.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go and run my poor scalded hand under the cold tap.

posted under Cooking and Food, Health and Counselling, Jonathan Gurney, Murdoch Blogger, Murdoch University, murdochuni, Student Health | 6 Comments

Shearing the Locks

I usually use Hairess on campus to get my hair cut. When I say usually I mean that I have gone to them to get my hair cut for the past 3 years. I’ve not been wholly faithful, in fact there have probably been as many as 3 other hair dressers in my life in this time, but on the whole I prefer Hairess.

I guess most it has to do with trusting them. If someone is going to be waving scissors around my head I really feel that I need to be able to trust them. I was not always this paranoid but like so many of my phobias I developed it after a painful experience. It was 2008 and my hair was getting a little out of control, so I wandered down to Hairess only to discover they had no free appointments. Being the carefree youth that I was I simply thought, “Oh well, I’ll just go into Fremantle and get one there.” How I would regret that.

I can’t quite remember the name of the place that I walked into but I remember thinking that it looked a little run down. I sat down in the chair and went through the usual routine of explaining what I wanted and the barber went through the usual routine of ignoring every word I said. Nothing really seemed out of place and we made small talk while he snipped away, I’m not usually the best conversationalist when someone is cutting my hair but I think its important to make an effort. The snipping stopped and I was expecting the clippers next. What I was not expecting was the barber to pull out an old fashioned razor and start hacking away at my hair.

This continued for about five minutes and I just sat in horror as chunks of hair fell from my hair. Nothing in my prior life experience had really prepared me for this so I just sat there and smiled weakly while the barber continued his butchery. Finally he brushed the copious amounts of hair off my shoulders and let me get out of the chair with a haircut that looked like something I’d have gotten for joining the army. Nevertheless I paid the gentleman and stumbled out into the sunshine. I’d have paid more than $20 to get out of that place.

So after that incident you’d have thought I would’ve learnt my lesson. Which is why I found myself in Fremantle on Monday looking for a hair dresser and hoping that I wouldn’t stumble into the same place as last time. This time I was lucky enough to find another place, a much more respectable place. The hair dresser at this new place was great but she had one small flaw; she didn’t talk at all. A hair-cut without chatter is simply fifteen to twenty minutes of being forced to stare at your reflection while someone cuts your hair and occasionally moves your head. It’s a form of psychological torture and I would not condone using it on anyone ever. Not even the barber that attacked me with a razor.

I guess the point of all of this is that I’ve learnt my lesson about going to hair dressers that don’t work at Hairess and apparently people will sometime cut your hair with old-fashioned razors. Avoid these people.

posted under Health and Counselling, International Students, Jonathan Gurney, Murdoch University, murdochuni, Public Relations, Student Health | 4 Comments

University Myth busters part 2

It’s come to the stage of the year when Murdoch starts accepting the mid-year enrolments. A lot of students who take a break after high school find this to be the best time to get into student life. However it can still be a pretty intimidating time and you probably have a lot of worries and doubts. With that in mind Murdoch asked me to write three articles tackling the most common worries you guys face. If you have any questions about enrollment I advise you to check out Ask Murdoch.

“I don’t know if I can balance work and study”

Earning money is fun isn’t it? Sure you maybe have to give up a couple of days in the week to get that money but once it’s sitting in your bank account the possibilities seem infinite. Working can also be quite fun because of the simplicity of the equation. More work = More money. I know a few people that used to go out to the mines, work solidly for two weeks and come home utterly exhausted but $2000 richer. Money also makes life easier to live because you don’t need to worry so much about how you are going to afford your next meal and an impulse buy won’t bring angry debt-collectors to the door. So when you’ve accrued enough money and have decided to give tertiary education a shot it can come as a nasty surprise when study time is replacing all the free time you used to have for work. You find yourself cutting your shifts because you need time to write the lengthy assignments and re-write the hastily scribbled lecture notes. So what’s the solution?

Balance

In the ideal world you’d work enough to pay your bills with a bit extra, have time to finish your assignments and still be able to go the pub every night with your friends. Realistically though you need to work hard to achieve this sort of life-style. Balance doesn’t mean getting everything done at the last minute but actually being able to create, and work in, specific blocks of time for each activity. So how can you do this?

Prioritise

I know it sounds like I’m channelling the inner Dr Phil but you need to sit down and work out what is important in your life. Your part-time job may seem really important and fulfilling but working 35 hours a week while your books gather dust is a dumb idea. The purpose of going to University, for me certainly is to get a strong qualification that will open doors for employment. This means that getting my degree is right at the top of my list of priorities. That being said I still find the time to work; I just need to be smart about which shifts I can and cannot do. Prioritising can be the toughest part of this process. Sometimes you need to cut certain things out of your life, maybe you won’t have time to play cricket with your club every night and that can be sad. But University isn’t forever so don’t look at some short-term sacrifices as the end of the world.

Plan

Proper Preparation and Planning Prevent Piss-Poor Performance. From week one you will have a detailed list of what assignments are expected from you and when they are due. If you know that there is a 2500 word assignment due in week 14 maybe you should approach your boss in week one to secure time off so that you have that buffer to work in. If your boss isn’t sympathetic then at least you know that you’ll need to start work on the assignment earlier than you may otherwise have thought. Likewise if you know that you have no assignments for a couple of weeks then you can temporarily take on some more shifts or use that time in some other manner. The worst thing in the world can be getting some free time and having absolutely nothing constructive to do in it.

Rest & Relaxation

Balance is a two way street. If you spend the whole semester buried in books your health will suffer and that is not fun. If you have a good timetable for your assignments worked out and you are confident that you don’t need to work on anything then you should go out and enjoy the company of friends. This can be the best part of University, kicking back between assignments, because it allows for some much needed breathing room.

Overall

All the fancy words will come as little comfort when you’re up at 4 a.m desperately writing an essay before your class at 8. Sometimes you can’t balance work with study or sometimes things go wrong. A seemingly simple assignment suddenly morphs into a 5000 word catastrophe and you feel very alone and a little bit frightened by the deadline. That’s why it can be a great comfort to know that there are safety nets in place for you. Tutors will grant extensions if you show them that you have worked all semester and you should never be afraid to ask for help. In fact Murdoch has an entire section of the library specifically aimed at helping people complete their assignments and do the best they can. But learning balance rests on your shoulders and it is certainly a skill I have learnt while studying at Murdoch.

posted under BA in Security Terrorism and Counterterrorism studies, Health and Counselling, Lectures, Minor in Journalism, Murdoch Blogger, Murdoch University, murdochuni, Student Health, University Myth Busters | 1 Comments

Mid-Year Enrolments Part One A.K.A University Myth busters

Note: This was meant to go up yesterday but due to internet problems did not. This means the one scheduled for today will also go up today and the third article will go up tomorrow as planned.

“I’m not sure I can survive on a student budget”
If you want to survive at University and, by survive, I quite literally mean ‘not die’ then you need to have at least a vague idea of where you are spending money and why. While it can be fun to wake up in a tree in the middle of the Village with no recollection of the previous night and a completely tapped wallet it can also lead to problems when you cannot afford bus fare to get to work. I am hardly qualified to give budgeting advice but I can at least tell you the mistakes I have made and how you can avoid them or at least make new ones.

Creating a budget

It’s boring and time-consuming but it can be great to keep a record of how much money you have and where you plan on spending it. I’ve seen students use spreadsheets, complex pie charts and iPhone apps to keep track of their finances and these methods are great. A student can track exactly how much money they have and adjust the budgets to new circumstances. I usually scrawl my budget on a napkin from work but you don’t have to follow my example. Creating a budget is as easy as working out your income and then planning out how you need to spend it. So what kind of expenses are you looking at?

Books

University textbooks can be really expensive and there is no getting past that. If you are extremely lucky there will be a second-hand copy available of your book available in the guild shop for a fraction of the book-shop price. Murdoch University Book-Shop is many things but cheap is not one of them so you might find it helpful to buy books online for cheaper prices. If all else fails and you feel you can’t afford to purchase your books then there is always a chance the library will have a copy on reserve. This is less than ideal as you can’t take these books out but if you are desperate it can be a life-saver. Also, because this is very important, just because a book is listed as “Essential” doesn’t mean it is. Take the time to ask your tutor or lecturer if the text-book really is vital to passing the unit before you buy it. This can save you shelling out $100 on an expensive paper-weight.

Food

We all need to eat. Some of us, especially me, actually quite enjoy eating and want to do it every day. Thus a student budget can come as a nasty shock when we suddenly discover that we cannot afford the frozen pizza and wads of cookie dough that form an essential part of our food pyramid. It’s rather a bucket of cold water when you realise that all the health food is about the same price as the junk food but will only last about half the time in the fridge. I spend roughly 3 hours a month trying to work out what the lump at the back of the fridge shelf is and whether it is still safe to eat. However there have only been a few times where I have gone hungry. Everyone eats a different amount but it can still be a lot easier to make shared meals that everyone can eat and share the cost around. This way you can also have fancier meals than a solo budget might allow for.

Entertainment

All work and no play turns you into a pretty successful person academically but you tend to lose your sanity. So there should definitely be space on your budget for entertainment. The occasional night out with friends or new DVD won’t utterly ruin your budget provided you keep these in moderation. Drinking in Perth isn’t cheap and a good night out can set you back anywhere from $50 - $200. Back in the UK I was paying around £3 – 4 for a pint whereas in Perth it’s closer to $9 – 12 depending on which club or pub you pick. Pre-drinking is a good way to get around this as you can get about 4 litres of cask wine for roughly $12. You do need to budget additional health-care money if you go the cask-wine route.

Overall

Student budgets are tough. You scrimp, you save and often you suffer but it’s still possible to survive. Budgeting can also give you a wake-up call when you realise how much money you are spending on stuff you don’ t need. You also learn to do more with less. When you realise you can feed 6 people on half what it would cost to order fast-food then you are on the right track. If you really believe that you can’t afford University on your own dollar then perhaps you can look at some of the funding options available or see if you qualify for student loans. As always you can email me any questions you have or leave comments below and I will do my best to answer them.

posted under Cooking and Food, Health and Counselling, Murdoch University, murdochuni, Public Relations, Student Health, University Myth Busters | 4 Comments

Student Health

We’ve all had days when the alarm goes off and we wake up feeling like death warmed up. The causes of this can be manifest. Sometimes we’ve simply had too much to drink, sometimes it was that extra couple of hours you decided were worth sacrificing to get that assignment done and sometimes it is simply because our fragile student immune systems have been over-powered by some virulent virus that seeks our destruction.

Admittedly it is far more likely that we’ve simply come down with a simple case of the snuffles or a little bit of food poisoning but when you have an 8:30 lecture everything feels worse. A bit of a headache suddenly feels like a herd of elephants in your skull, a slightly sore throat feels like sandpaper and your bed feels even more comfortable than it has ever felt before. There is a lot of debate over the best move to make at this point. Some recommend going to the doctor and others suggest shrugging it off and heading to class. I’m a strong advocate of lying on the couch, sipping Lemsip and watching Dr. Phil till I feel better. If whatever I’ve got hasn’t gone away by the next day then it’s time to head up to campus to make an appointment to see a doctor.

International students should breathe a sigh of relief here as OSHC makes it free to see a doctor on campus. They also partially cover the cost of some of the medicine you might get prescribed so keep the receipts and take them to the International office on Monday, Wednesday or Friday to be compensated. OSHC does not cover an ambulance unless there’s a serious emergency so unless you want to fork out $500 for a trip to the hospital you’d be well advised to take out separate ambulance cover when you arrive because you never know when you’ll use it.

As far as hospitals go Murdoch has one right next door, St John of God. However, it is a private hospital which means OSHC does not cover getting treatment there. In an emergency I’d recommend heading into Fremantle as the hospital there IS covered by OSHC, at least partially, so at least you won’t be stuck with a big bill after treatment. I do not recommend hanging out in the emergency room without a friend or two as some of the people that wander in can be rather scary especially at 3 a.m. on Halloween.

For sexual health and counselling services you can go to the Health & Counselling centre. Generally speaking the nurse is always on hand to help out people without needing an appointment. The nurse is very nice and won’t laugh at you when you have a minor freak out during a blood test, not that I’ve ever done that. I haven’t had any one to one time with the counsellors but they ran a workshop on shyness last semester and I found them to be very pleasant. There are also regular STD screenings that students can get if they feel they need it as well as free condoms available to help practice safe sex. All in all it’s a very useful service on campus.

I think students have pretty decent health services on campus apart from some problems with OSHC. If you can afford it then perhaps checking out some private alternatives wouldn’t be a bad idea but not essential. That’s probably enough rambling on this topic but I might blog a bit more about student health later in the semester, especially with the village being a breeding ground for flu, but more on that later.

posted under Health and Counselling, Health Insurance, Murdoch University, murdochuni, Semester 2 2009, Student Health | 0 Comments