HCL Foundation launched Mental Health Helpline in Madurai to support the students in distress

Madurai: HCL Foundation, the CSR arm of HCL Technologies, is supporting the Happy Schooling Project, which is being implemented in Madurai among the 24 Corporation run schools since 2017-18. The project has helped in building a strong teacher student bond and has created a conducive and happy environment for students. It is being technically supported by NIMHANS, Bangalore and detailed curriculum has been set on mental health literacy. With the support of Madurai Corporation, the project is now launching a helpline which would support the students in distress and in need of any psychosocial support, in a much more streamlined and an effective manner.

Few Key Highlights of the Project are as follows:

– The project has reached out to 11,253 students and more than 250 teachers in the last three years.

– More than 50 teachers have been identified, along with the school heads, who will be trained through a six-day intensive training program for providing psychosocial support and to develop the competencies in providing counselling to the students in need. The training with further help them understand the use of the available referral network.

– A four-tier mental health literacy session is conducted with the Heads of the schools; Teachers; Parents and the Students themselves, to exclusively focus on the Mental wellbeing of the students

– An exclusive session was conducted with more than 1400 students of Grade 10th and 12th on the “Art of writing Exams” to ease out their exam fears. In addition to this, career guidance program was also conducted to assist them in making an informed choice on their higher studies.

– Student Support centres have been established in all 24 schools and the students have been encouraged to develop their talents through competitions like drawing, craft from waste, collage, poster making among other activities, on different social issues

– The student support centre has also identified students with psychosocial needs and further referred them for targeted intervention with the project counsellors.

– Students have been encouraged to exhibit their talent through poems/essay/drawing/posters on any social topic every month for ‘Wall Journal’ which has been placed in each school. The displayed works are collected, evaluated, and rewarded by the end of every month in the school to motivate and develop the young talent.