Kerala’s Women and Child Development dept ropes in its school counsellors in fight against substance abuse

As Kerala’s anti-drug campaign picks up pace, the Women and Child Development (WCD) department too has stepped up efforts to tackle the problem of substance abuse among children by equipping its 1,012-strong team of school psychosocial counsellors to identify the problems early and provide referral services.

Implemented in association with the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP), the initiative involves providing full-day training to all school psychosocial counsellors according to a module prepared by the DMHP to detect early if schoolchildren exhibit any signs of substance abuse and refer them to counselling, deaddiction, and rehabilitation services.

As the psychosocial counsellors are WCD department staff who reach out to nearly 2 lakh students in schools, they are uniquely positioned to intervene in the matter early and turn students away from drugs and other such substances.

A team of psychiatrists provides the counsellors training in student assessment through use of standardised tools and then provide referrals to Vimukthi clinics for deaddiction, DMHP for mental health support, or the WCD’s parenting clinics or district resource centres.

Rating scales

The training, which has been completed in some districts, involves use of rating scales to determine if students have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or control disorder, if they are inactive, or other such issues such s screen addiction for vulnerable children are found more at risk of drug abuse.

The counsellors are also introduced to a screening test, a kind of questionnaire that helps reveal through students’ responses if they are addicted to alcohol, smoking, or substances. It helps ascertain if students are just beginning to use drugs or they are hooked on to it. This enables counsellors to make informed decisions about the referral services needed by students, whether it is counselling or medication to help them kick the drug habit.

Teachers and parents too can use this screening test for a more effective response to the drug problem.

The counsellors say follow-ups will held them know if students are taking the medication required to wean them away from drugs or have resumed substance abuse.

They also stress the need for healthy family relationships for children’s well-being and keeping an eye on children, their rooms, and belongings to spot signs of drug abuse, if any, early and asking for help instead of trying to hide it.