Thousands of students consult for mental health

Good Neighbors International (GNI) is a non-governmental organization that establishes and operates a school counseling model (Speakout) in Hanoi with the aim of safeguarding and protecting the mental health of students, as well as improving their prevention skills.

In 2021, the organization will establish two school counseling rooms at Le Quy Don Middle School and Minh Khai Middle School according to 3C standards (professional – professional – full-time); continue to support the operation of two consulting rooms at Ban Mai Middle School – High School (Ha Dong District), Nguyen Truong To Middle School (Dong Da District) which was established by GNI in 2019. Organize and implement programs simultaneously. training programs for teachers on skills to support students’ mental health; organized a sharing on methods of supporting children for parents and coordinated with the Hanoi Ministry of Education and Training to organize a workshop to share the model of a school counseling room for secondary schools in Hanoi.

Based on World Health Organization in 2017, one in four students aged 14-15 years had mental health problems such as depression, anxiety disorders, behavioral disorders… In Vietnam, a research report on Mental Health and Psychosocial Health of Children and Adolescents in Vietnam, conducted by ODI, Unicef ​​in collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower, Persons with Disabilities and Social Affairs in 2018 also showed that the proportion of children and adolescents currently suffering from mental health disorders as a whole ranged from 8% to 29%. Common types of mental health problems include introversion (anxiety, depression, loneliness) and extroversion (hyperactivity and inattention).

In order to contribute to improving students’ mental health, since 2019 GNI has started to establish a school counseling room. Not only focusing on operating methods according to 3C standards, the consulting room is also interested in design issues. With a friendly design according to the criteria of AMAN – Security, Environment – surroundings, Atmosphere – atmosphere, Feelings – emotions, Examples – models, each school counseling room is divided into many rooms to ensure privacy. Rooms such as reception rooms, individual consultation rooms or group consultation rooms and equipped with assessment tools; book; individual or group therapy toys or items.

Together with a team of professionally trained counselors and support and supervision from experts with more than 10 years of experience in psychology, the school counseling room has become a place where students, parents believe and send thoughts.

Nguyen Khanh Chung, Principal of Ban Mai Middle School said: “The school counseling room is the heart of a school. The positive effect of the 3C consultation room has brought about the most meaningful activities for students, both for teachers and parents.

In the world, one of the typical models of school psychology support is the comprehensive and systems development promotion model in the US (NASP, 2010, 2020). In the United States, school psychologists are typically trained in developmental psychology, child and adolescent psychopathology, education, family and child care, and learning theory. personality… Typically, school psychologists in the US are in charge of assessment, counseling, and psychology. support and psycho-education. As a result, they often become experts not only in psychology but also in pedagogy.

With the project organization GNI, representatives of the organizing committee said that there are four supported school consultation rooms to set up and operate; with more than 4,000 turn for students and parents to consult; 79 prevention programs were held with the participation of 5,599 students and parents. In addition, there are 8 “One Happy Hour” programs that assist parents with around 1,800 parents participating; sharing workshop “Building and operating a school consulting room” with the Hanoi Ministry of Education with representatives from 30 Education and Training Ministries and more than 100 participating secondary schools; 3 good practice handbooks for school counseling in secondary schools compiled…

During the consultation process, the experts paid attention to 6 groups of students’ salient problems, namely career learning and guidance, violence and abuse, relationships with friends, game and substance abuse, depression and trauma, relationships with parents.

Especially during the pandemic, many students experienced a decline in their studies because they could not concentrate because they were studying online, so they were under academic pressure from their parents. They also feel anxious when there is a breakdown in relationships and communication with friends and teachers. Staying at home for long periods of time with parents also creates conflict in parent-child communication and relationships.

The GNI representative said that the biggest difficulty was that the project was operating in the midst of the complex developments of Covid-19 in Hanoi, so that many activities were not regulated according to the time, form and expected number of participants. Online consultation cannot guarantee 100% quality like face to face. In addition, public awareness about mental health in general is still not high, so many parents are not ready to be approached and supported. Mental health problems that are still labeled “neural”, “mental”, “problematic”… make sharing from students and parents difficult, not yet open.

“However, all schools have a core group of parents with a deep interest in the mental health of their children. They are very active and ready to spread the word to more people. Students are also gradually building trust with the consultation room and actively participating in its activities. “, said the GNI representative.

At the end of the mentoring period, 100% of students and parents from Le Quy Don Middle School were satisfied when receiving counseling, while students and parents from Minh Khai Middle School were 94%.

The GNI organization said that in the future, it will focus on continuing to support and replicate the school counseling room model to other secondary schools as well as developing a document system based on actual operating experience and organizing training and communication programs to raise public awareness about mental health.

Therefore, by 2022, GNI will establish and operate two more consulting rooms at Ngo Si Lien Middle School (Hoan Kiem District) and Nam Tu Liem Middle School (Nam Tu Liem District). The foundation project does not scale to a large number of schools but focuses on the quality of the operations of the schools supported, to ensure that schools will understand the process and be able to operate the room model. Self-counseling as well as students, parents enjoy quality services.

Nguyen Phuong

at Blogtuan.info – Source: vnexpress.net – Read the original article here