Wellness in a Box
A silent crisis affecting young people — a rise in anxiety, depression, and even suicide. It is a national reality and as a mental health professional for 35 years, I’ve been seeing the warning signs. There was a 20 per cent increase in anxiety and depression during the Covid pandemic. Deaths by suicide were also going up, especially among high school students. Due to the stigma surrounding mental health, awareness about it was low. Young people suffered in silence and took recourse to the last option. In India, where over 50 per cent of the population is below 25 years of age and one-third is under the age of 18, this is a critical issue.
A community assessment found that most schools did not employ a school counsellor/psychologist and were not even contemplating doing so. Teachers and doctors in the community felt the need to tackle the growing depression, anxiety and stress among teenagers.
Wellness in a Box is a well-structured programme of the Rotary Action Group for Mental Health Initiatives (RAGMHI). It uses a curriculum developed by Boston Children’s Hospital in Harvard Medical School that shows parents, teachers and students how to prevent depression, anxiety and suicide. It not only raises awareness but also helps build coping strategies and resilience among students and breaks the stigma by initiating conversations.
Rotary Club of Nagpur, RID 3030, launched this programme, partnering with RC Naples, Florida, USA on a global grant in 2022, when schools reopened after the pandemic lockdown.
A team of Rotarians from the club volunteered their full support and services for the two-year-long projects, with Namita Sharma coordinating the programme along with club members Neerja Shukul, Ragini Sahu, and Anns Mamta Kahai, Shefali Shah and Madhu Mrig.
The project also curated a year-long part-time diploma in school counselling with the help of a college in social work. So far, 20 teachers of the schools have earned the diploma. By building teachers’ competencies in school counselling, we hope to make the transition from the psychologist provided by the GG to teachers taking over the counselling services.
RI President Gordon McInally visited Nagpur in April 2023 and was very impressed by the programme.
A second step was creating peer leaders among school students to identify and help those in distress. They would assist the students in need by referring them to the counselling psychologist.
To date, 2,300 students and 2,000 parents and teachers have participated in the training programme and many have been helped with counselling and therapy.
An NGO, Yashodhara Bahu Updeshiye Sanstha, helped us in measuring the outcomes with a pre- and post-survey of students and teachers and we saw the graph going up on the scale for knowledge about depression, confidence in seeking help from the counsellor, and a scale down in negative attitudes toward depression.
The response has been heartwarming. We have parents and students wiping their tears, crying openly, and sharing their secrets, perhaps for the first time in their lives. Teachers realised that they need to know more about children’s mental health and that teaching subject matter is not enough. It’s a humbling experience for them. Students realise that mental health is more important than grades!
The impact is seen in the entire city, with many schools approaching us for this programme, and more teachers enrolling and sponsoring themselves for the diploma certification. The certified teachers conducted full-day seminars with 400 school principals, headmasters, headmistresses and senior teachers on the importance of counselling in schools, mental health problems in students, and the role of teachers.
Many other Rotary clubs and district chapters of the RAG for on Mental Health Initiatives have begun implementing the Wellness in a Box programme.
We had good press coverage in the local media and would be happy if the four-hour curriculum on the prevention of depression continues to be taught each year to students and parents by the certified teacher-counsellors. Our dream is to get the State Department of Education to institutionalise this programme in all schools: it would be the best long-term impact we could dream of.
The RAGMHI has made the “Wellness in a Box” toolkit freely available online. This equips you with everything you need to implement the programme in your local schools. You can also connect with the Rotary Action Group to learn more about the programme (www.ragonmentalhealth.org).
I urge you to spread awareness and share the Wellness in a Box initiative with your network, and contact your local Rotary/Rotaract club to bring it to your community. Together, we can create a world where mental health is a priority, not a silent threat.
The project got international recognition when project director Rita Aggarwal received the Rotary People of Action Award at the RI Convention in Singapore.
The writer is a member of RC Nagpur, and Founder Director of the Rotary Action Group on Mental Health Initiatives.
