By Ratandeep Chawla
MUMBAI, JULY 24, 2018: Prafulta organised a free seminar entitled 'The Principals Toolkit' for international school principals of Mumbai on July 20 at the Prafulta Psychological services Andheri, to help the principals establish a mental health programme in schools for the students.
Some of the key features of this seminar was to help the principals respond to crisis situations, understand anger, manage aggression and to gain an insight into the mental health referral system.
Principals, vice principals, special educators, head of care centers, coordinators and managers from international schools attended the seminar. Father Godfrey D'Sa, Director of Prafulta Psychological services, personally welcomed all the attendees and introduced them to the various works of Prafulta.
Father D'Sa has done extensive work with youth for several years, "One must learn to waste time with children, as that helps to make the emotional connect with them, which is very important for the social and emotional development of the child and it brings academic excellence and success in life," he said.
He spoke about the importance of emotional intelligence and the RULER programme, which is a design to promote emotional literacy, and includes Recognising, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating emotions. This was also supported by a video that explained the child's trauma when the parent is emotionally unavailable.
Prafulta consultants, Payal Ubale, an experienced occupational therapist (OT), and Divya Nair, a clinical psychologist also addressed the gathering. Through an exercise involving all participants, they demonstrated how expectation causes performance anxiety which interferes with the task at hand and how in the moment of crises our functioning drops, when it is important to think and respond well and fast.
They introduced the three levels of crises, which gave a complete picture of how children are exposed to the various parental and school expectations, and when they are unable to cope with it, the emotional damage it causes, and if they are unable to identify and express the emotion in a healthy manner, it can cause various other psychosomatic and psychological problems.
They also laid emphasis on the increasing cases of suicide, and how as parents and teachers they must battle the issue. Nair, who has extensively worked with children, said, "Never take a suicidal statement lightly, it is our perception that the child wants attention." She brought forth the important ways of dealing with such issues and mentioned that handling crises is a team effort. The guidelines for the school as a helping body consists of having a counsellor, clinical psychologist and special educator, provide training to the teachers and non-teaching staff.
Emphasis was made on the importance of a safe environment at school and appropriate referrals to psychologists as early as possible to prevent long term damages; psychiatrist referrals can be further made by them if required. Nair also gave a brief explanation of the common psychological assessments, its importance and how to deal with resistance that might come in the way of carrying out these interventions.
Ubale spoke about the role of occupational therapists and how they support the child, their family and other relevant people such as teachers, to evaluate challenges in doing daily activities. She emphasised on the importance of early detection of a delayed milestone and appropriate intervention that can promote sensorimotor, psychosocial, and cognitive functions which may prevent disability or decrease dysfunction in order for the child to meet personal needs and adapt to the demands of the environment.
She also emphasised that occupational therapy facilitates children who struggle with everyday fine and gross motor tasks and helps their parents in coping effectively with the challenges of care giving and family life.
There were a few questions that were asked by the participants on the number of occupational therapy sessions required and how to deal with parent's denial for therapy for their child and stigma related to attending a remedial class, which were convincingly answered by the speakers.
Finally, a fun-filled physical exercise of stretching and dancing was taken by Ubale, which she stressed could be done on a regular basis with the children that would help them with coordination and sensory-motor development.