Teacher's Training Program

Mental healthcare sector in India faces several challenges, which are infrastructural and sociological in nature. Government agencies, service institutions, individual service providers and non-government organisations are all contributing to address a range of these challenges. Yet, we believe that one of the biggest gaps is lack of access to knowledge. We believe that by empowering people with the right knowledge on the subject, they would be able to make informed decisions; including raising demand for services, which will further result in supply of service providers.

When it comes to child mental health and wellbeing, we need to educate those who influence the children. Hence, White Swan Foundation is committed to working closely with teachers and parents and help them pick up the right knowledge on mental health, which will enable them to provide the necessary support to their children, when in need. This will also help create a generation of children who are empathetic towards those with mental health issues, thereby breaking the chain of social challenges/stigma that people with mental illnesses have had to face for generations.

White Swan Foundation will train schoolteachers on various aspects of mental health. Through a series of communication and educational initiatives, White Swan Foundation hopes to help teachers play a pivotal in transforming society’s perception of mental illness and attitude towards those with such illness.

• According to WHO, mental health issues among teenagers/adolescents will contribute significantly to the global burden of disease in the coming decades.

• According to the National Mental Health Survey, conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), about 9.8 million children in the age group 13-17 years are in need of active intervention. The most commonly prevalent problems are depression (2.6%), agoraphobia (2.3%), intellectual disability (1.7%) and autism spectrum disorder (1.6).

• Bullying, academic pressure, body image issues, peer pressure, technology addiction, depression, anxiety, phobias, specific learning difficulties and developmental disorders are other issues seen in this age group.

In order to meet the goals of the program in the year 2019, White Swan Foundation aims to put in place the required infrastructures required to execute its School Mental Health Program.

During the period ending March 2019, White Swan Foundation hopes to achieve the following:

• Content: Create all the content that is required to execute the School Mental Health Program and to follow up with the 400 teachers in Karnataka whom we have already trained. This would include scores of text-based content, audio/video, illustrations, infographics, and presentations, curate facilitated sessions and workshops.

• Partnerships: Put in place an efficient partnership ecosystem that will deliver the desired action plan.

• Get Schools: Get on board about 100 government-run schools in Bangalore.

• Scale up programs in other parts of the country, starting from Maharastra and Delhi.

Bring 100 schools on board to sign up for this program.

Teachers in 50 schools to be completely equipped with mental health skills. They will be certified as mental health literates.

Teachers in 5 schools to be trained on half of these modules (considering the school calendar and availability of teachers).

Students shall show visible improvement in communicating about emotional distresses and getting support from school authorities.