Associations' / Institutions' News

Media Release

Mangaluru, May 30 : The staff of St Theresa’s School attended a Session on ‘Mental Health of Teachers ’ by Dr. Smitha Rasquinha on 30th May, 2022.

The program began with a short prayer session. The speaker for the session was Dr Smitha Rasquinha, presently working as the Assistant Professor at Department of Psychiatry , Fr Muller’s Medical Hospital. The school principal Sr Lourdes welcomed the resource person with a sapling. After the formal welcome , the speaker began her session on the topic ‘Mental Health of Teachers’. Mental health is more than the absence of a mental health condition was explained in brief at the start of the session. The different role of a teacher in the society as a life coach, motivator, organizer, guide etc was highlighted before moving to the session on common problems in childhood. It was a well organised talk, branching the challenges into three categories namely behavioural, emotional and learning problems. After this interesting session, the talk shifted to the responsibilities and challenges faced by the teachers by parents , professionals and even personal ones. The speaker then gave the teachers tips to reduce stress and they were as follows:
Being active, eating a brain - healthy diet , quality sleep , self monitoring , staying connected, learning to say ‘No’, make time for fun and quiet, relaxation and avoid unhealthy coping strategies. The right way of doing deep breathing exercise and guided imagery technique was shown to the teachers.

The speaker later shifted to the topic of ‘burnout’ which was really an eye opener to the audience. The teachers were taught the importance of seeking professional help from clinical psychologists or psychiatric counselors when they felt they had the symptoms of being burnt out. The session ended very smoothly with the speaker recapping all the explained topics very briefly. This was a very interesting and much needed session for the teachers and was appreciated by everyone.