In May 2023, IWELL was sponsored by the Tin Ka Ping Foundation and successfully launched the "Sichuan Psychological Therapy Professional Training" project. The main objective of the project is to cultivate 30 seed teachers who mastered the skills of narrative drawing intervention, provide group counselling to 150 students affected by the disaster, helping them heal their psychological trauma. The project was successfully completed in February 2024, and research data showed that the main goals of the project were achieved, with improvements in students' mental health. For more details about the project, please refer to the webpage: https://www.eduhk.hk/iwell/en/projects/sichuan/details.html
From July 8th to 12th, 2023, under the joint organization and promotion of the IWELL, NDI Institute, Chengdu College of Arts and Sciences and City North Middle School in Shimian, 30 teachers gathered five-day NDI training courses.
The teachers, have effectively conveyed the basic techniques of NDI through sharing, guiding, inspiring, and practicing with their professional knowledge, skills, and extensive clinical counselling experience. Interviewed teachers expressed that the course not only helped them heal themselves but also helped them to discover resources around them. Furthermore, it enriched their opportunities for interacting with the teenagers’ population and their professional experience in psychological education work, laying a foundation for improving the mental health of local students in Shimian.
After the training of 30 seed teachers, with the strong support and publicity of the school leaders and teachers, we successfully recruited 150 students to participate in the project. The group counselling took place at City North Middle School in Shimian, spanning from September to November. To overcome regional limitations, 30 seed teachers adopted the two-person 1+1 mode (with teachers online and offline) and tutored 10 students together.
In the process of group counselling for students by seed teachers, Hong Kong tutors also provided 10 supervised classes and activities in the form of group tutoring, giving students who are unwilling to speak out the opportunity to express themselves through artwork, the process of drawing together also created a more relaxed and enhanced social interaction.
From the 150 students who participated in the group counselling, we randomly selected 45 students to fill out the "Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale" and "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5" before and after the counselling. We also evaluated their mental health by collecting saliva samples and measuring brain waves. At the same time, we recruited 30 students who did not participate in the group counselling as a control sample. According to the data results, the mental health of the experimental group improved after participating in the group counselling, especially in terms of anxiety levels. Many seed teachers also mentioned significant changes in their students during interviews.
Professor Leung Chi Hung, Co-Director of IWELL, provided a course at City North Middle School for 30 seed teachers on the theme of home-school cooperation and school crisis management from July 13 to 14, 2023. He taught the experience and skills of students with mental health needs and supported schools to establish a crisis management system.
