By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 13 Apr: In what can be seen as a good initiative, Woodstock School, one of the leading and oldest boarding schools in India, will hold probably the first ever school organised international conference on Mental Health and Wellbeing on Saturday.
Binu Thomas, a clinical psychologist and counsellor with Woodstock School, informed Garhwal Post that the conference will now be held in hybrid mode in view of some Covid positive cases detected in the school, which have all been isolated.
Thomas confirmed that, in all, 11 schools from Uttarakhand and one international school are expected to participate. Initially, the conference had been scheduled to be held in completely offline mode but, in view of the cases, all other schools apart from Woodstock will now be participating in virtual mode.
She stated that leading experts on mental health and wellbeing, including doctors and lawyers, will speak on the subject. Topics such as mental health, wellbeing, and drug addiction will be discussed at the conference. New discoveries and research in the field of drugs will also be discussed. Presentations, workshops and interactions will be held related to the subject of the conference.
The event will see participation of 300 participants from various international schools that are affiliated to the Global Alliance for Innovative Learning (GAIL) schools.
Participants in this programme will have the opportunity to learn from experts on mental health care and prioritising students’ mental health. Innovative approaches to the issue of mental health and wellbeing will also be discussed.
Thomas stressed that Woodstock School takes the issue of mental health and wellbeing of the students quite seriously and, therefore, has employed well qualified counsellors to help students as well as the parents on issues related to mental health and wellbeing.
Among the speakers at the conference will be Dr Dheeraj Kattula, Doctorate in Medicine (DM) from AIIMS and currently Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Christian Medical College, Vellore, in Tamil Nadu and Dr Raja Paulraj, Consultant Psychologist with Landour Community Hospital in Mussoorie. SDM Nandan Kumar will be the Chief Guest at the closing ceremony.
