A second-year battler has raised $3k for mental health support after swimming in the recent New Zealand Ice Swimming Championships at Alexandra Pool on July 10-13th. Now that’s Dunedin-core. Maddy spoke to Critic Te Ārohi about the struggles of the race and her motivations for taking part.
Maddy’s first-year was tough on her mental health, she told Critic, sparking a concern for mental health support for freshers in halls. “Coming down here, I didn’t realise how many people were struggling and being in halls, the amount of stories I heard where people have had really horrible experiences, I thought something needs to change,” she said.
While Maddy has always been a good swimmer, she didn’t think anyone would sponsor her for just swimming – hence the call to “add the ice component.” She had been training at the Marina in about 7 degree temperatures for the event, yet was faced with a chilly 2 degree temperature during the actual race – the coldest recorded temperature in the event’s short history. Maddy did multiple races across the weekend, with her biggest battle being the 1km. This was the event that saw 56 donors raise $3,035 for Voices of Hope, a mental health support charity.
“People have been really supportive, I think because it's very personal to a lot of people, so a lot of people I don’t even know have sponsored me which meant a lot to me and to be honest made me really emotional to see how many people cared about the cause,” Maddy told Critic.
Maddy’s challenge did not come without struggle, however. In both her campaigning and in an interview with Critic Te Ārohi she spoke of her frustrations with mental health support systems at the University. She said that approaches she had dealt with were “a lot of preaching to the choir but not getting on people's level [...] There's not that many people willing to walk the talk. There’s not actually people out there sharing their stories or willing to be vulnerable; they say ‘be vulnerable’ but everyone just goes out drinking.”
Maddy claimed that the “preaching to the choir” approach was best exemplified by the approach in halls. “Just the way the halls support students I don’t think it's the right way. It's about maintaining a good public image. It's run like a business, but not caring about the students.”
A University of Otago spokesperson responded to these claims, saying, “The health, safety and wellbeing of all of our tauira in our residential colleges is paramount to us and we take any feedback seriously to ensure our support services meet their needs effectively.” They pointed out to Critic that the University invests “significant resource into a wide range of mental health services.”
A major concern for Maddy was the mental health burden of freshers falling upon sub-wardens in halls. “They expect sub-wardens to be able to deal with really intense, dark stuff. How are people a few years older than us able to deal with this?” Maddy recommended there be more training for staff and less pressure on students themselves to trauma dump in order for staff “ticking a box.”
The spokesperson from the Uni refuted Maddy’s claim that the burden of mental health falls solely on sub-wardens, who are “there to support and reassure tauira and escalate anything such as mental health concerns to senior staff. Our senior staff working in colleges are the ones who work with tauira to ensure they receive the right support services they need.” In terms of the responsibilities of sub-wardens, at the start of each year Student Health “provides training to residential college staff, including sub-wardens, to support them in understanding how to respond to the mental health needs of their residents.”
On a more personal front, Maddy’s endeavour in the challenge was about being vulnerable and showing students some of the things they have the ability to do. “I’m not good at being vulnerable, so I thought I can’t tell others to be vulnerable if I’m not going to be vulnerable myself,” she said.
If you are struggling, Student Health’s mental health and wellbeing team provides services to all Dunedin tauira, with same-day counselling appointments available either through their website or calling 03 479 8212.