By Flowerbudnews
The Cope-and-Live Mental Health Awareness Foundation has advocated for a functional psychological counseling unit in schools to early discover a child cognitive and emotional strength and weaknesses.
The co-Founder of the Foundation, Mrs Uzoamaka Nwachukwu, disclosed this to newsmen in the foundation’ resource centre in Enugu on Wednesday.
Nwachukwu, a child psychologist and a mental well-being life coach, made the call on the sidelines of the call for teachers and parents/guardians to redouble their efforts, as gatekeepers, to see to proper upbringing of children and wards.
According to her, the psychologist observation and professional input on a child life will further help the school (teachers) and the home (parents) to apply and direct their energises to building up or strengthening the identified weaknesses of the child.
She said, “Child development and up bringing is never an easy task and it also gives huge responsibility to parents, teachers and guardians.
“We need to pay adequate attention towards child development both at schools and at homes.
“We need to constantly observe the emotion of these children with a view to finding out what they are faced with or passing through with a view to providing relevant therapy to help save them from navigating into negative pathways.
“Their feelings and emotions matters and there is the need for the establishment of a counselling unit in all schools to be manned by certified mental health experts/counsellors (psychologists).”
The expert said that the psychologist would professionally identify various feelings of any school child and provide the necessary therapy which would aid in child development.
She decried the situation whereby adequate attention is never paid to child emotions such as when the child is feeling sleepy, angry, bored, furious, happy, sad and feel among other human feelings.
“There is also a need for constant engagement of the psychologist with teachers and parents on mental health, negative emotions and management,” she said.
It would be recalled that Cope-and-Live Mental Health Awareness Foundation is a global foundation on mental health awareness and education, womens health and hygiene advocacy, multi-sports activities and counselling for a greater society.
