Everyone had a share of the impact caused by COVID-19 in their life for two years. But how do the students face these tough times, and how are they still getting influenced? Maybe in our busy lives, we have forgotten that they have the most tender minds and hence need special attention in this ‘transition to normal times’
The restart of the normal education system needs to enhance mental health services. Students were stuck at home attending online classes, having no real contact with their peer groups, having no extracurricular activities, and now are moving towards the normal academic routine. Students usually have a constantly changing life, and when it stopped for a while, they got confused as they didn’t know what to do those times. This has led to an increased number of suicides, depression, and a decline in the academic performance of adolescents.
The life experiences of a student are continuously painted by their peers and their interaction with their immediate environment. And in pandemic, where they were stuck at one place, their experiences become constricted and became a reason for various internal conflicts. Also, many crucial experiences such as attending various cultural, sports annual events which could give them sweet memories didn’t happen.
Students usually have a good time at school as they have a lot of things to do. During the pandemic, everything was at a halt. To get them to the right track schools need to have an appropriate mental health care system. At least one extracurricular activity and 30 minutes of tutoring three times a week.
Extra-curricular activities are a great way to take care of one’s mental health. It engages one in something that is completely different from their monotonous routine, also, it helps to meet new people and have new experiences.
When people make good relationships with others they import the relationship with themselves also. It helps them to understand emotions and various aspects of relationships better.
Apart from this, mental health services always play a great part in helping needy ones. One or two sessions regularly would be enough to uplift mental health. But people from different cultural backgrounds can have difficulty in approaching mental health professionals. People from conservative find it shameful to admit any mental health problem which further makes them hesitant to approach any mental health facility. So the topic needs appropriate awareness and address.
Also, many people find it unaffordable to reach out to mental help as these services seem to be cost-ineffective in low-income areas. Students don’t feel comfortable asking their parents for money to attend these services which further creates a barrier. So these services must be affordable and approachable to every section of the society in order to help every member of the city/country.
As these students are the future of the nation, their mental health is extremely important as it can affect their respective careers and their professional performance. Adolescence is a very crucial duration of life, and it requires special attention. The changes that take place in physical appearance and ongoing psychic changes makes them prone towards various mental health conditions. As there are various chaos going on in everyone’s life due to this pandemic, this group somewhat fails to attract attention. But the situation can actually be improved with little efforts such as, students can talk to their peers, parents can pay specific attention for a period of time. They can actually take their kids to appropriate center.
In some educational institutes, where these services are available they require improvement in order to fulfill the current demands of students. To make the situation better in these times, teacher and other school officials should be trained to detect abnormal behavior and intervene appropriately. An overall assessment of school staff and students should be held to assess the current status of all educational members. It will also require a competent mental health team to handle all the issues in these institutions. They can have a random need assessment among their students and can intervene according to their results.
If there is anyone suffering from any difficulty, he/she should be encouraged to reach out to proper care and proper attention should be given to his/her situation.
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