World Mental Health Day celebrations at School

First held in 1992, 10th October is the day dedicated to raising awareness about mental health issues and to fight the stigma still associated with it.

The Psychology department at our School held numerous activities through the day to ingrain a better awareness of mental health. The activities ranged from mindfulness meditation sessions, a poster-making competition and a video interaction with psychologist, Ms. Saloni Taneja, in Baltimore, USA. Ms. Taneja addressed the students on mental health issues, the stigma associated with it and what students can do to promote mental health.

The morning began with age-appropriate mindfulness meditation sessions for all classes from nursery to class XII. The punch line for the activity was 'Living the Present and Living in the Present'. These exercises help increase an awareness of one's own thoughts and feelings to reduce anxiety and boost levels of concentration.

The Psychology students presented a power point presentation at the senior school assembly citing examples of celebrities who have suffered mental illnesses; namely, Ryan Reynolds who suffered anxiety issues, Deepika Padukone who suffered depression, etc. This helped share the fact that anyone can be affected by it. Hence, it is important to talk about mental health and take necessary steps to deal with problems like anxiety, stress and depression. Students were told strategies like controlling negative thoughts, engaging in a hobby, exercise, making lifestyle changes and seeking professional help when required.

Principal, Ms Tania Joshi also initiated a discussion with students on depression. It was suggested to spend less time on social media applications like Sarahah, ask.fm, facebook, Instagram and instead build healthy relationships with family and friends.

There was an inter-house poster-making competition for middle and senior sections. The topic for the senior students was: Mental Health: Frontiers of the Mind and the topic for middle school was: Social Media- Bane or boon?

Towards the end of the day few students of classes XI and XII engaged in an interactive skype session with a US based psychologist, Ms. Saloni Taneja who has the experience of having practised in a variety of settings including a community mental health clinic, a psychiatric hospital and a university counselling centre. Apart from working with clients, her interests include mental health advocacy and building awareness to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.

During the session, Ms. Taneja actively interacted with the students about the unfortunate taboo against discussing issues of mental health in our society and about the labels attached to those who are suffering from mental illnesses. At the end of the session, she encouraged the students to think of new ideas which can help make a change in the present scenario and promote awareness and sensitivity towards the important issue of mental health.

The students let Ms. Taneja know about the programmes at our School like Life Skills' education, the Citizenship Programme, etc., she was impressed and suggested that they carry on the work with the same momentum.

A day filled with awareness-building exercises thus, reinforced the message that mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of. Neither is talking about it. Its 'Time to Talk, it's Time to Change'.

Ms. Sukhmeen Cheema.