The Need For Prioritising Mental Health Education In Schools

Life is a rollercoaster ride and we are often left delusional in the rigmarole of events that pertain to our mental wellbeing. However, with decaying societies and deteriorating environments, why do we often not recognize beyond physical afflictions? Covid-19 did manage to bring mental health in the limelight. But perhaps there's a lot more to understand about mental health that society is so hushed about.

Mental health starts with self-awareness. It is important to nurture the roots of self-awareness from adolescence itself. Unfortunately, our country's system and policies are only aligned with integrating children into the education system and preparing them to work in suitable jobs rather than providing a holistic approach to help them be the best versions of themselves and truly actualise their potential.

Though these should remain our primary focus, it is also time to look beyond these parameters and provide inclusive education where there is initiation of thoughts on making adolescents understand their emotions, behaviours, and experiences and their effect on mental health through a psychological lens.

Nurturing A Better India

Our energies should be focused on understanding how our population can be nurtured holistically for a better India. Since the seed is often sown where the environment is conducive for growth, the bedrock of this thought process was automatically identified as our education system. We realised that the system was deprived of self-awareness, happiness quotient, and lacked understanding of internal goals. Integrating mental health and emotional well-being gave a vantage point to look at the existing issues with a finer lens. To build initial prototypes, my team identified remote parts of South-West Delhi, such as government schools in Chhawla, where the population experiences more social and developmental challenges than in urbanised areas of Delhi.

The aim is to understand the multiple dimensions of adolescence before implementing the idea in a phased manner across Delhi/NCR so that we can provide the schools with the best tools and environment possible to nurture the students for a better India.

Another issue that needs immediate addressing are the psychiatrists. Unfortunately, they are overloaded with work. With fewer hospitals for mental health care, despite having fresh graduates passing out every year, the disparity in the number of professionals to fresh graduates is gravely significant. Since there is a lack of awareness about mental health, the opportunity avenues are a lot smaller.

Encouraging Students To Visit Psychologist

For the same reason, we are contemplating decentralising the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), Delhi to create different micro units across Delhi which would be able to cater to the state's present needs in a better and more efficient manner. Besides this, we must also look into the discord between psychologists and psychiatrists. Both need to realise they are two sides of the same coin and need to work in tandem with each other to improve the current situation.

We are the first state to make the guidelines as per the Mental Health Act 2017 for SMHA. The buildings proposed for construction are in fact half-way homes. The need of the hour is to develop an ecosystem. It includes giving an encouraging atmosphere to a psychologist where the students can be assured that they are being heard.

If a school-going child is narrating a trauma and if we don't address the reason behind the trauma, then we are doing injustice to the child as a state. The present need is to train the entire system cohesively. Teachers are great listeners, but psychologists do a lot more than just listen. Through their knowledge and training, they provide the healing required by the child on time. We are on the verge of slowly losing the youth of our country if we don't make them aware of the consequences of neglecting mental health.

Also Read: Youngsters Lead In Preparing Community For Climate Change Events