‘Quarterly screenings will help identify high-risk kids’

MUMBAI: When a high school boy committed suicide in a Pune school earlier this month, the management sent an educator there to conduct a probe. “Initially, the parents were not cooperating,” the educator said. Later, she learnt that the boy was facing suspension over beating up of a student. “He was an accomplice... The principal had decided to suspend him.The boy was scared of his father and also embarrassed about what his peers would think.”
Closer home, a school in the western suburbs was shocked by two suicides recently. “The boy who committed suicide always looked jovial and was the football team captain,” the principal said. When another student committed suicide, the school immediately called for a parent-teacher meet, where she urged the parents to ask questions for the safety of their children. The school also conducted counselling for close friends of the two students.
With psychological health of students becoming a concern of educational institutions, around 35 school principals and educators from colleges came together on a common platform to discuss the issue.
A nursing college principal said, “When a student committed suicide some time back, my initial thoughts was that my office was always open to students so why did she never mention her personal problems to me?”
Dr Harish Shetty, a mental health expert who organised the session, described ‘brittle mind’ as a state of intense anxiety wherein the person is unable to communicate the pain that she is going through and to stop the pain ends up taking extreme step. “The reason for this is that the child has not been exposed to difficulties,” he said adding, “there are certain basic characteristics that help in identifying high risk students. It involves students whose family is facing a financial crisis, students who are not performing well academically or students who are extremely competitive in nature.”
He suggested that the schools conduct screenings every 3 months to help identify those at a high risk. “Communicate with parents and sensitize teachers towards building an emotional connect with children by talking about their own problems as well,” he said.
It is believed that 15% of Indian population is affected by mental illnesses. In 2016, 9474 cases of student suicides were recorded, which proportionately translates to a staggering number of one student suicide case reported every 55 minutes.