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Fortis School Mental Health Program & Macmillan Education hosts workshop for school principals on ‘Mental Health Curriculum in Schools’
– A workshop for principals of leading schools to encourage talking about mental health issues with students
– Launch of book titled ‘Talking about Mental Health in the Classroom: A Mental Health Curriculum for Teachers’
– Over 60 schools participated in the workshop
On 2nd November 2019, Macmillan Education, a leading global publishing company in collaboration with Fortis School Mental Health Program, Fortis Healthcare, hosted a workshop for school principals on ‘Mental Health Curriculum in Schools’ at The Park Hotel, Kolkata. Dr. Samir Parikh, Director – Fortis National Mental Health Program led this event as the keynote speaker.
Dr. Parikh talked about important issues like the necessity of incorporating Life Skills education for students and the prominent role of counsellors in schools in ensuring the well-being of children.
He also launched his book, written with his colleagues Kamna Chhibber and Mimansa Singh, titled ‘Talking about Mental Health in the Classroom: A Mental Health Curriculum for Teachers’ which is published by Macmillan Education at the event. While releasing the book he said, “Talking about mental health is very important and there is no substitute for preventive efforts directed towards building life skills and resilience in students. This book is created as an aid for teachers in easily implementable modules to promote enhancement of knowledge of teachers and students about mental health problems. It also focuses on encouraging help-seeking behaviours, building resilience and creating a culture of well-being in the classroom.”
Speaking at the event Vandana Juneja, Director – Marketing, Macmillan Education said, “As stakeholders in the education ecosystem it is our moral responsibility to disseminate resources which contribute to overall mental and physical development of young learners. Publishing Dr Parikh’s curriculum on mental health is a significant step in that direction, we look forward to schools taking this up enthusiastically.”
The principals of over 60 leading schools, who were part of the workshop, greatly appreciated the joint initiative of Macmillan and Fortis Healthcare to put forth professional views on this sensitive topic.
Some schools that attended the event included St. James School, Don Bosco High School-Liluah, De Paul School – Bansdroni, La Marteniere, Gems Academia International School, The Heritage School, Douglas Memorial Higher Secondary School, St. Thomas Girls’ School-Khidirpur, St. Augustine School, Maharishi Vidya Mandir, Delhi Public School – Joka, M.P. Birla Foundation Higher Secondary School , South City International School, St Mary’s Orphanage and Day School, Garden High School and Ram Mohan Mission High School amongst others.
Department of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences, Fortis Healthcare
The Department of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences at Fortis Healthcare is an integrated mental healthcare system comprising a multidisciplinary team of experts including psychiatrists, clinical and counselling psychologists, art and movement-based therapists, psycho-oncologists, remedial experts, psychodynamic psychotherapists, organizational behavior psychologists and sport psychologists. Led by Dr. Samir Parikh, Director, Fortis National Mental Health Program, it is the one of the few multi-city multi-centric comprehensive mental health programme in the world, with a presence in 24 centers across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Mohali, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jaipur and Udaipur. With a key focus on preventive and positive mental health, the department runs the Fortis School Mental Health Program, which is completely free of cost to schools. The Fortis Stress Helpline (8376804102) is a 24 X 7 helpline run by a multilingual team of mental health professionals in order to support individuals experiencing emotional distress.
