School mental health program in India

Abstract

School mental health program (SMHP) has been recognized worldwide as key to improve the mental health and wellbeing of school going children. Unfortunately, in India, SMHP is badly neglected. There is no comprehensive SMHP that covers all school children (from rural and urban areas) across the country. A few sporadic activities that occur are praiseworthy; however, they lack a long-term approach. Major reasons for such neglect of SMHP in India could be lack of a steering body, poor intersectoral coordination, and minimal stakeholders' involvement. India, as any other country, needs to implement countrywide SMHP on the model of mental health promotion, prevention, and early intervention (PPEI). This paper outlines the deplorable state of SMHP in India and the needed steps to implement an effective countrywide SMHP on the PPEI model.

School Mental Health Program in India—Issues and Possible Practical Solutions

“…A comprehensive review concluded that SMHP in India ‘is running with a piecemeal approach’, and for all practical purposes, it is non-existent for most school-going children. The authors opined that “the sporadic efforts (such as conducting some sensitisation program for school teachers) are praiseworthy; however, they are insufficient for a comprehensive and sustainable SMHP.” 13 …”

High‐risk health behaviors predict depression among school‐going adolescents: the need for integration of mental health with school health program in India

“…Referral mechanisms to the departments of Psychiatry at tertiary care centers would be a valuable addition to the RBSK program in India. Future studies should evaluate the feasibility of collaborative activities between RBSK and the School Mental Health Program in India (Kumar, 2021).…”

Improving psychosocial distress for young adolescents in rural schools of Pakistan: study protocol of a cluster randomised controlled trial

“…The scale measures child’s quality of health on four subscales namely, physical functioning, emotional functioning, social functioning and school functioning. The items are rated on four points Likert scale ranging from 1 ‘no problem’ to 4 ‘almost always a problem’. Items are then reverse-scored and linearly transformed to a 0–100, so that higher scores indicate better quality of life.…”

“…Alabama parenting scale 32 will be used to measure parenting practices. Alabama parenting scale is a 42-item measure that encompasses five dimensions of parenting that are relevant to the aetiology and treatment of children’s’ and adolescents’ problems 1 : positive involvement with children, 2 supervision and monitoring, 3 use of positive discipline techniques, 4 consistency in the use of such discipline and 5 use of corporal punishment. Items are rated on a five-point Likert scale (1=never to 5=almost always).…”

“… 3 There is growing evidence from both high income and LMICs that school-based mental health programmes are associated with beneficial mental health outcomes in adolescents. 1 2 However, scale-up and sustainable implementation of mental health programmes for young people in LMICs demands political will, stakeholder involvement, intersectoral coordination and leadership often between health and education sectors, 4 particularly in a post-COVID context, where 91% of the world’s student population has been negatively impacted by closures of schools due to COVID-19 pandemic. 5 …”