CCI staff tasked to identify children’s mental health
NEW DELHI: Mental stresses sometimes led to suicide and the country including Delhi witnessed several cases, where the children living at Child Care Institution (CCI) faced many hardships in life leaving them mentally disturbed. In order to protect them, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) have trained more than 50 staff of CCI in Delhi.
The training was basically to understand the mental health of the children. NCPCR also roped in several experts from top hospitals of the country.
Rupa Kapoor, member of NCPCR, said that it is necessary to identify and emphasize the mental health needs of children, especially those living in institutional care, as they come from vulnerable situations. The capacity building programme of CCI staff will help them to identify the mental health issues at the earliest and ensure children a safe childhood,
“Recreational and vocational needs of children are given primary importance for the improvement of mental health,” she said.
According to child rights body, children who do not get the support of their families, stay unprotected and quite often are subjected to exploitation. She said that children are even abused by the families which make them mentally disturbed
The guidelines which have been made by the child rights body claimed that the problem of a child should be explored and causes of the problem should be looked upon. The CCI staff should explore the positive qualities such as strengths of the child. The guidelines also talked about how to assess the suicidal tendencies of a child. “A routine assessment of risk should be part of the assessment of children and particularly adolescents who are placed in child care institutions,” said the guidelines.
The guidelines further claimed that there should be the specific inquiry about current thoughts of suicide or self-harm. An assessment of the young person's history, accounting for temperament, previous experiences, exposure to suicide in the family should be done, specific inquiry about past suicidal plans or acts.