- Brisingr Tech Team
Mental Health and Wellbeing session for staff - 04.7.2020
Mental Health has been one of the greatest challenges this pandemic has posed on
mankind and education has been one of the sectors, worst affected. Schools and
teachers have been the ones who have had to adapt to sudden changes in their
methods and upgrade their skills within a short span of time. This has resulted in
immense stress and pressure in the lives of the teachers and the school fraternity as
a whole. Talking about Mental health and Wellbeing has thus become the need of
the hour. In the interest of the wellbeing of all the staff members, a mental health
and wellbeing webinar was organized for all the Teaching, Non -Teaching, Co -
Curricular, Admin and Office staff of VPMS, Lohegaon on 4 th July 2020.
The webinar began with the Principal Ms. Candice Braganza addressing the staff,
appreciating the efforts put in by all the staff members and reassuring them that
everyone was doing a good job. The ‘Mental Health and Wellbeing’ session was
conducted by the ‘Health and Wellness Teacher’, Ms. Deena Chirayil. The session
began with, discussing the importance of maintaining good mental health and
focusing on wellbeing, during these challenging times. The various characteristics
of good mental and emotional health i.e. developing a sense of belonging, sense of
purpose, positive outlook, self-sufficiency and having a healthy self-esteem were
put forth.
Early warning signs or Red flags of mental health challenges that one should look
out for were then discussed in detail. Changes in eating and sleeping pattens,
moving away from people and activities of prior interest, severe mood swings and
problems in maintaining relationships, irrational thoughts and inability to perform
daily task, to name a few, were discussed
The session ended with an activity, where all the teachers and staff members were
asked to share one life lesson that this pandemic had taught them. This was then
followed by an appreciation messages activity, where every staff member shared
an appreciation message with the coworkers who have been of assistance and help
to them during these difficult times.
A beautiful video of all the staff members in action, during their online sessions
and while preparing for the same was then played, this was to salute the efforts
that each one of them had taken during the past few months, pushing their limits, to
ensure that young lives that were at stake were not affected and education
continued.
The session helped all the staff members to reflect, focus on themselves, gain
perspective and spend some much needed ‘ME TIME’