7th Congress of Asian Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

7th Congress of Asian Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions and 12th Biennial Conference of Indian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Ashoka Hotel , New Delhi

On 27 September 2013, Ojasvi Jain of class XI , Sanjula Sethi of class XII and Ms Sukhmeen (School Counsellor) got the rare opportunity to represent their perspective on the issue of mental health amongst School children at a symposium organised by the 7th Congress of Asian Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions and the 12th Biennial Conference of Indian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at Ashoka Hotel , New Delhi .

The chair included Dr. Manju Mehta and Dr. Anjaiaah Madhugulla. Eminent psychiatrists, psychologists and special educators of India and abroad were a part of the audience. We were thrilled to get an opportunity to share our experience of peer- education and discuss the perils of stereotypes needing attention at the global level.

The symposium started with a brief introduction about child health and development programme, followed by our experience as peer- educators and the importance of counselling in school by Ms. Sukhmeen Cheema. Our school was appreciated for actively participating in the peer- educator programme organised by Expressions India to help students develop a broader and a holistic perspective on issues that affect them like bullying, peer- pressure, aggression, substance- abuse etc. The delegates were pleased to hear about our efforts at organizing workshops to spread awareness. We were also appreciated for our posters created on the subject.

Thereafter, different relaxation therapies including dance, music sports, art- as-a-means for expressing anger and other emotions in a creative way were shown to us. This was followed by a talk by a well-known special educator on learning disabilities which are neurologically-based processing problems which can interfere with basic learning skills. The three main learning disabilities were discussed included dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia.

The symposium concluded with Dr. Jitendra Nagpal, one of India's most eminent psychiatrists who elaborated his efforts to spread awareness on such issues with his peer- education programme etc. He also discussed the unsatisfactory state of school counselling in India with only 0.8 % schools having school counsellors. Also the need for a proper structure for them to perform within. He said it was for this that he had started a body of school counsellors. He answered queries and hoped for a robust redressal of the problem mental in India.

Being teenagers and also being interested in psychology, the occasion gave us great exposure which we also plan to share with our peers in school. We take immense pride in having been a part of this wonderful symposium and thank our School for giving us the opportunity.