Jamshedpur, Dec. 2: Samarthya, XLRI successfully wrapped up its 2020 edition of its annual conference, Reflections, aimed at initiating discussion amongst students, teachers, and parents on various issues that affect school children on a day to day basis. This year, the focus was on Mental Health and the pandemic: its implications and how to cope.
The event was headed by Sanket, the secretary of Samarthya for the A.Y. 2019-2020, with the Senior and Junior Executive team’s support. The event saw participation by over 150 students from three major schools in the city, Dayanand Public School, DAV Public School, and Tarapore School. School teachers and parents joined the event as well, in order to get a better understanding of the topic of mental health and its impact on the kids.
The Guest Speaker for the conference was Dr. Pooja Mohanty, who is presently the full-time counsellor at XLRI Jamshedpur. She holds a Ph.D. from NIMHANS and is a Fellow from Oxford University, UK. Dr. Mohanty talked about the implications of isolation period on people’s mental health across different age groups and provided students with valuable insights on how to ensure we stay connected to the people close to us. The speech also stressed the perils of social media, as children came forward with their concerns of using social media, the general insecurities and anxieties that come with the increasing use of social media applications as a communication tool.
“I’m always worried about doing well in school; how do I cope with the academic pressure?” “How do I identify and work on my emotions and feelings?” These were some of the pertinent questions the school children had come up with, as we talked about mental health’s importance, especially during these challenging times.
Through an interactive quiz, the team aimed at debunking myths about mental health. Participants were also asked to assess how they felt during a particular situation with the help of a thought record worksheet; they could easily pinpoint emotions and work upon alternative thought processes they can adopt. Several take-home activities were also provided to both teachers and students. The organisers of these activities, Ruchika and Devesh, helped the students understand various existing misconceptions about mental health and the stigma attached to a person suffering from these issues. Students responded enthusiastically by drawing instances from their own experiences or from what they had heard from people around them.
Several engaging activities were conducted in order to make the children comfortable in sharing their thoughts about the topic. A video explaining the presence of mental health issues amongst students and what they can do to get support from each other was shown and discussed enthusiastically with the students to help break the stigma. The students could relate well to the instances shown and even cited examples of some of their favourite celebrities who have talked about their mental health.
Apart from the student community, the event was also well received by the parents and teachers of the students who attended the event along with them.
