*November 3, 2010* *New Delhi: *There is a greater need for trained counsellors in India, as the system of family is not as effective as it used to be in acting as a counselling unit for people, said Kiran Walia, Delhi's Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Women and Child Development and Languages.
Walia was speaking at the valedictory ceremony of IGNOU's two-day Launch-cum-Orientation programme for Coordinators and Academic Counsellors for its newly launched MSc and Post Graduate Diploma programmes in Counselling and Family Therapy on October 26. "I would advise police personnel to join IGNOU's Master's programme in Counselling and Family Therapy to become more empathetic," said Walia, who was the Chief Guest at the event, held at Studio-II of the Electronic and Media Production Centre (EMPC) at IGNOU Headquarters in New Delhi. The programmes, which were launched by Director General of Health Services Dr RK Srivastava on October 25, are being jointly coordinated by IGNOU's National Centre for Disability Studies (NCDS) and School of Continuing Education (SOCE). Speaking at the ceremony, VC Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai remarked, "If any institute in the country wants to start a similar programme, IGNOU will be more than ready to help in every possible way." The two-day Orientation programme was attended by about 70 IGNOU programme coordinators from all over the country. Experts like Dr Jitendra Nagpal, Consultant Psychiatrist, VIMHANS, Prof Ahalya Raghuram, Dept of Mental Health and Social Psychology, NIMHANS, Prof Manju Mehta, Dept of Psychiatry, AIIMS, as well as subject experts from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences (IHBAS) and WHO were present at the event. Highlighting the success of the Orientation programmes, Prof M Aslam, Director, SOCE, said, "The success of a programme in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode is dependent on two factors – quality of course material and effectiveness of the delivery mechanism. The two complement each other. This Orientation programme, which was meant to strengthen delivery mechanism of the newly launched programmes on Counselling and Family therapy, has been a great success." Dr Arun Banik, Director, NCDS, said that since the University's reach goes beyond cities, such a programme will help rural areas too. "A large number of resource persons and subject experts gave lectures in the two-day Orientation programme. Their valuable insights will be documented and delivered to the programme coordinators and students as part of the course material," Dr Banik added. Dr Uma Tuli, Chair, Rehabilitation International (RI) Education Commission and Founder, Amar Jyoti Charitable Trust, was the Guest of Honour at the function. http://indiaeducationdiary.in/Shownews.asp?newsid=4489 -- 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
