If what the school guidance counsellors say is any indication, promoting mental health in schools in the country has become crucial. They say, these days, many students are facing mental health issues that affect the students academically, socially, and emotionally. But tackling the problem is more challenging without enough counsellors.
Deki Choden is the only counsellor for nearly 1000 students of Changangkha Middle Secondary School in Thimphu. She provides at least five counselling sessions to about ten students monthly. “Being the lone counsellor and not being able to reach out to each child is one of the challenges that I face. Then another thing is competency development for counsellors because especially school counsellors, we don’t have a specific area of focus, we have to deal with diverse cases.”
Like Deki, today, there are about 177 school guidance counsellors in the country. And for most of them, the counsellor-student ratio is double of what the America’s School Counsellors’ Association recommends: one is to 250.
“We encourage students to come forward to share their issues and concerns with us but there arises a gender gap. The opposite sex won’t feel comfortable to come and open up with us,” said Karma Dema, a school guidance counsellor with Damphu Central School in Tsirang.
“One counsellor is not sufficient. She does all the work by herself. Many students are not able to get in contact with her when they need it,” said Nim Tshering, a student of Mendrelgang Central School in Tsirang.
According to the counsellors, stress, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse are some common challenges the students face.
“I think we are stressed mainly because of the pressure that we have to do well, the pressure to have everything together. And also, social media for one has played big part in elevating a lot of people’s stress; having the perfect lives just out there in front of you but it’s so far for yourself to reach,” said Sonam Choney Droelma, a student of Changangkha Middle Secondary School.
As per international studies, school counselling can help young people manage mental health issues. And identifying problems early help them in getting timely support.
“We need to invest in more counsellors so that we can get more interaction between counsellors and students. The second is of course the skills of the counsellors are really important and perhaps there is a need to boost their capacity to be able to do some of the issues that students are dealing with. I think the curriculum itself in the teaching environments that we have in Bhutan can be enhanced by having social and emotional learning curriculum,” said Dr Will Parks, Representative of UNICEF Bhutan.
“I think we need to do a lot of advocacy on counselling and put counselling in a frame where everyone views this as a help, as a support and not stigmatise people seeking support,” said Deki Choden, Changangkha Middle Secondary School’s School Guidance Counsellor.
The education ministry says it has been providing post graduate in counselling to 30 graduates annually to address the shortage of school counsellors.
A study on the mental health issues among young Bhutanese conducted in 2016 reveals that nearly half of the adolescents have some mental disorder making them vulnerable to suicidal behaviours. It recommends the need for a holistic intervention with the support of children, community, teachers and parents.
Edited by Sonam Wangdi