3. EXTENSION SERVICE FOR MENTAL WELLBEING
3.1 The Context
In the journey of academics to progress and growth, the college makes all possible efforts to promote quality education and aim at academic excellence. Beyond academic achievements, there are areas of human and personal life which need attention and consideration. The experiences of ups and downs in life at times become challenging and call for greater attention. With the advancement of technology and life getting more sophisticated and complicated, counselling has become a necessity, especially in all educational institutions. To the siren call of this urgent need, St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous) introduced the practice of Counselling in the colleges and schools.
3.2 The Objectives
1) To journey with the students.
2) To understand and empathise.
3) To motivate and rejuvenate youthful age.
4) To teach the art of encountering life experiences.
5) To fight and be achievers.
6) To accept and to let go the unpleasant pasts.
7) To re-orient self to live in the present and write the future.
8) To figure out future goal, with clarity.
3.3 The Practice
The college engages professional counsellors who helps in Counselling. During the college hours they are busy and engaged with the students in their counselling chambers. Beyond the college hours, they give counselling to the students in respective campus hostels. They do the noble task of accompanying, counselling, mentoring and guiding the students on regular basis. The uniqueness and distinctiveness of the college is that these counsellors of the college are not confined only to college hours of counselling within the campus. Their passion and enthusiasm are to look beyond the college campus to help those who need support and assistance. They go and render help wherever they are called. They are invited to colleges and schools, institutions, villages, and church communities to help. This undertaking is considered the priority and thrust of the college from the fact that the college recognises the need to contribute and assist more young people in their growth and for the benefit of the society. The counsellors take care of the students’ mental wellbeing which has tremendous impact on their academic performance and interpersonal relationship. The long-term aim and purpose of this practice is to help the growth and progress of the college and society which can be achieved through growth, development and progress of the students.
3.4 The Success Story
These counselling programs have had positive impacts in many areas so far.
1) Enhanced Career Guidance: The individuals who have had the opportunity to be counselled had more informed knowledge and are better prepared for the future. Counselling service provided opportunities for a more comprehensive career guidance. Students gain benefit as they are provided with personalized attention, industrial insights and career guidance.
2) Partnership and collaboration: Through extension of counselling service, the college is able to build up partnership and collaboration with other institutions. Extension of helping hand in counselling leads to exchange programmes, joint research projects, and other mutually beneficial initiatives.
3) Internship and Apprenticeship Programs: Venturing to other educational institutions encourages and opens up the possibilities to collaborate and implement internship and apprenticeship programs between institutions. The college has exchange program with SCERT, Government of Nagaland where the trainees of Diploma in School Counselling have the opportunities to gain practical experiences.
4) Broaden Students’ Perspective: The counsellors help the students to strategize their career, provide a long-term perspective and help them to establish wider perspectives in life. Counselling process helps many students and individuals to build up self-confidence and overcome limitations in life.
5) Soft Skills Management: Extension counselling to other institutions helps the students to enhance their problem-solving skills and improved stress management. With better knowledge of problem-solving skills and stress management among the students, the task of teaching-leaning process becomes easier and favourable.
6) Disorientation to reorientation: College students dare to venture and experiment with their lives. But in the process, some get disoriented, disturbed mentally, psychologically, physically and spiritually. Disorientation of life results in low/poor performance, irregularity or inattentiveness in the class. Counsellors extend their help to such students and re-orient them to upright and honourable life.
7) To Heal and be Healed: Students coming from diverse family background like broken families, alcoholic parents, bereaved families, divorced parents, weak financial background etc. go through confused and uncertainty of life. Offering counselling to such students help them to get healed from mental, psychological and emotional confusions. Many students face discouragements due to failures and lose motivation to be successful. Some develop negative tendency and become problem to their family, society and institutions. Counsellors play the role to heal them and help them to be healed.