The multidisciplinary community service team (pengmas) of Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas of Indonesia (FF UI) chaired by Prof. Dr. Berna Elya, M.Sc., Apt in collaboration with PT Sarana Multigriya Finansial held an online seminar “Health Program Against Covid-19”. The theme raised at the activity held last November was “A Study on Strengthening Psychological Aspects and Creative Economy in the Covid-19 Pandemic”.
The reason for choosing the theme of this activity was due to the effects and challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic on the community. “This activity is expected to be able to provide knowledge and strengthen families in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic from the psychological and creative economy aspects,” said Dean of FF UI Dr. Mahdi Jufri, M.Sc., Apt.
One of the speakers, Dini Rahma Bintari, S.Psi., M.Psi., Ph.D from Faculty of Psychology of UI explained the challenges faced by families during a pandemic, such as fear of being exposed to Covid-19, emotional exhaustion, and sadness due to the loss of family members or livelihood. “Therefore, it is very important to understand the various potentials possessed by families and increase these potentials to be able to overcome these challenges. These potentials include the potential for Multiple Intelligence (IQ), Emotional Intelligence, and Spiritual Intelligence,” said Dini.
Dini conveyed how to manage emotions – responding to emotions in the right manner and attitude – so that it is socially acceptable, while it is still allowing spontaneous reactions to arise. “The components of Emotional Intelligence are capturing and recognizing emotions appropriately, then accepting emotions and interacting with emotions by asking ourselves what makes us angry and being able to manage emotions. The right choice of attitude to deal with negative emotions is an assertive attitude, which is facing conflict while respecting others and ourselves,” she said.
In her presentation, Dini mentioned several ways to overcome emotions during a pandemic, which are limiting information about the outbreak and its impact (just once a day), doing positive and productive activities to overcome anxious thoughts, and learning to share sadness, fear, and anxiety with trusted friends or mental health experts such as psychologists. “The experience of suffering and loss during a pandemic can provide an opportunity to understand that there are things that cannot be controlled by humans so as to provide confidence that there is a greater power in terms of spirituality,” she said.
Sandhi Pratama, the CEO of Haibolu, an online shop community in Indonesia, was the second speaker at this event. “The potential of the online market in Indonesia is huge, revealed by the statistics of Instagram users currently reaching 90 million and Facebook users 188 million,” he explained. Sandhi outlined several stages that must be done to start an online business, namely determining what product ideas to sell and optimizing products by paying attention to the potential of products that can be developed.
Furthermore, according to him, the media that can be used to sell products are Whatsapp Business, Instagram, Facebook, and several other marketplace pages. In his presentation, Sandhi also conveyed several ways of promotion that can be done by beginners to market products, such as utilizing personal social media accounts to promote products, using word of mouth method through relatives/friends, and routinely creating social media content, with a minimum amount of one feed and ten Instagram stories in a day.
Through this online seminar, it is hoped that FF UI can contribute in assisting government programs to provide education to the public in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic from psychological aspects and the creative economy.
