‘Skilled psychologists needed to counsel students in distress’

Out of every four persons, one is mentally-ill: IPPSI chief 2-day training programme on ‘Development of Counselling Skills’ begins

Tirupati: Everybody faces some kind of stress in their life and psychologists are needed to pull them out of distress, observed Tirupati Urban SP Abhishek Mohanty. 

Addressing a two-day training programme on “Development of Counselling Skills” being organised by  Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha (RSVP) and Inspire Professional Psychologists Society of India (IPPSI) here on Saturday, the SP felt that there is a dire need for psychologists, particularly for those having counselling skills, as everybody can be prone to stress. 

The SP stated a person can come out of stress with self-confidence and explained one small story to substantiate his statement. 

“Psychology means human behaviour and mind. Every one of us will have three traits-patience, emotional quotient and winning. 

By adopting these three traits anyone come out of psychological imbalance,” he explained. 

This type of programmes helps to enhance skills of psychologists and can have a better idea of various cases and developments from time to time.

RSVP Vice-Chancellor Prof V Muralidhara Sharma pointed out that there should not be academic pressure on the students. 

He stressed on the need for inclusion of personality development in the school curriculum so that students can overcome stress. 

The training programme will open new vistas to the students pursuing courses in psychology, he said and adding Co-curricular and extra-curricular activities are key in coping up with stress. 

Explaining the need of psychologists, the V-C expressed anguish over 1,000 students committing suicides in Andhra Pradesh alone. 

He mentioned that students should be taught how to handle anxiety and stress situations and felt that training programmes would benefit psychologists, in turn, for the society.

The founder President of IPPSI, Prof B Govind Reddy said that according to 2015-16 statistics of World Health Organisation in every four members, one person was psychologically ill whereas for every 10-lakh population in the world, only one psychologist was there, and the problems have been multiplying. 

The Supreme Court of India has already issued guidelines to appoint one psychologist for every 1,000 students in educational institutions, but no government has been implementing this. 

Coordinator of IPPSI R Chandrasekhar, Secretary Prof T Bharathi and Dean of the Education department Prof Prahlad R Joshi also spoke. 

The programme would have stalwarts in counselling skills like Prof Niranjan Reddy from Hyderabad, Prof S Kadhiravan, Salem and Prof Pragna Mitra from Visakhapatnam, who will train the psychologists. 

Psychologists, scholars and students from across the country are attending the programme.