*Date:01/09/2010* *URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2010/09/01/stories/2010090161830300.htm* ------------------------------ Back<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2010090161830300.htm&date=2010/09/01/&prd=th&;>
Tamil Nadu <http://www.thehindu.com/2010/09/01/23hdline.htm> - Dindigul *Plan to solve personal problems of students* Staff Reporter *Box to be kept in government high, higher secondary schools* *mentAl fitness:Collector M. Vallalar at a feedback meeting with teacher trainers on adolescent mental healthcare in Dindigul on Tuesday.* DINDIGUL: An exclusive box would be kept in all government high and higher secondary schools in the district to enable adolescent boys and girls to express their grievances and personal problems in a letter and drop into it. This facility would help those who would not be able to express their personal problems to teachers openly, said Collector M. Vallalar. He was addressing a feed-back meeting with teacher trainers on adolescent mental health care here on Tuesday. Teacher counsellors would open the box and collect letters only in the presence of Chief Educational Officer or District Educational Officer during their visit to the school. The officers would hand them over to the Joint Director of Health Services. Special team After thorough scrutiny, he would depute a special team comprising psychiatrists, psychologists and counsellors to meet those students personally and help solve their problems. They would also diagnose mental problems, if any, of such students. Confidentiality would be maintained by the team and teacher trainers of the school. Training hand book and compact discs would be given to each trained teacher shortly to assess students, he added. “Teachers should know the mind set of students. Various factors including mark-oriented education system stepped up mental strain and stress of the students. Teachers should not beat or slap students. They should behave as their friends,” the Collector advised. Mr. Vallalar also ordered all school headmasters and principals to convene a meeting within a week to train more teachers with the help of teacher trainer to make secondary mental health care, a continuous one. Joint Director of Health Services T. Jayabal said that cooperation of parents was essential for the success of the programme. Deputy Director of Health Services K. Jagadeesh Kumar and Chief Educational Officer S. Asokan and the District Differently-Abled Rehabilitation Officer, S. Mathivanan, spoke. Later, teacher counsellors explained reasons for suicide by students, ignorance on sex and relationship between girls and boys. Experts from Christian Medical College, Vellore had imparted training to one teacher from each high and higher secondary school in the district on adolescent mental health care in June. Four stages Sensitisation, validating the screening tools for a specific population, collecting data for disease prevalence and effective intervention were the four stages of the training. ** © Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/MhaNewsViewsIndia?hl=en ------------- Affiliated Groups : MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INDIA [email protected] Discussions on mental health law / policy / plan monitoring / human rights etc [email protected] India-specific news and views related to mental health [email protected] Information and support to carers of people with mental health issues [email protected] Mutual support and sharing of experiential knowledge, skills and social learning amongst peers
