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’