Why it is important to have on-site counsellors at schools
An Abu Dhabi-based student who had a break down due to stress caused by a heavy course load, says on-site counsellors in schools should be made mandatory.
After taking on an extremely rigorous workload in school, Indian expatriate, Pragya Chawla told Khaleej Times she had a “full blown burnout”, which ultimately led to her taking a month and a half off school.
But now she has bounced back from her ordeal — and has since been accepted to Stanford University in the US — Chawla wants to put the spotlight on mental health awareness in schools.
“The role of a counsellor in school is irreplaceable. They help guide students, and one of the unexpected collateral damages of no on-site counsellor is that a student’s aspirations narrow,” she said. Though Chawla is going on to study engineering at college, it was her focus on issues outside the classroom that helped her gain entry into one of the US’s most prestigious campuses.
“I focused a lot of my efforts on establishing a supportive network surrounding mental health issues for my school peers.”
After experiencing personal issues herself as a direct impact of her school workload, she said she felt “compelled to help others”, because at that time her school had no dedicated counsellor.
“We just started to talk openly about mental health issues. We have a lot of pleasantries in this world but very few are facing the real issues head on. I wanted to do that.”
With most of the support being offered during after-school hours through online interactions and phone calls, Chawla said that just “being there for someone” is an effective way to help people in crisis.
“I felt like it was my job to guide these people and support them. I helped them write essays, book appointments etc. I felt like playing the role of counsellor.” After students opened up to Chawla in her support group, she said the overriding theme was that most students saw their school as a “safer place than home”.
And that’s a positive sentiment that needs to be utilised. “Some of the students I spoke to had family members suffering from severe mental health issues at home. And a lot of stress was being taken out on them. They saw the school as a safe place, and the support group as a safety cushion. So lets make that a permanent fixture for them in schools.”
Chawla said although most people learn basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR, a first aid for cardiac arrests), she now wants to make it “a habit” that school administrations and students to learn the basics of “psychological first aid”.
“I took a course online in a bid to better position myself to give support to my peers. I am in no way a professional on this but I think it is imperative schools establish a good, solid team to ensure the wellbeing of all it’s students.”
The role of a counsellor in school is irreplaceable. one of the unexpected collateral damages of no on-site counsellor is that a student’s aspirations narrow.” Pragya Chawla, Indian expatriate