A multi-disciplinary & collaborative initiative under the aegis of Global Wellbeing Forum at Amity University Haryana, Gurugram, is a mission to combat Covid19 pandemic despair and marching together for ‘ Victory’

The project JAI „victory? envisages mitigation of psychological impact of Covid19 among people infected and affected by SARS- CoV2 (Novel Corona virus). This Joint Advocacy Intervention - project JAI is an initiative under the aegis of Global Wellbeing Forum constituted at Amity University Haryana, Gurugram, India in year 2019. It?s a multidisciplinary initiativeto deal with the psychological consequences related to Covid19 pandemic focusing preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative aspects of individual and community. The intervention is going to be prudent to address any other scientific questions in which professionals from different disciplines, backgrounds would collaborate to obtain a more thorough, detailed understanding of the nature of the questions and consequently develop more comprehensive interventions and facilitate creation of enabling environment.With the announcement of first lockdown by the Government of India to slowdown and contain the spread of Covid19 among masses, the psychological support services were initiated by the members of Global Wellbeing Forum under the project JAI from March 2020 onwards.

Key objective of the planned activities under project JAI are:

·         To strengthen psychological counselling and support services for patients, their family members, and other people affected by the epidemic

·         To strengthen referral systems to secondary and tertiary mental health services both in public and private settings

·         To conduct research on psychological crisis interventions due to Covid19 pandemic and publications in peer reviewed indexed journals

·         To develop collaborations and partnerships for rolling out need based focused interventions and leveraging on resources

·         To train student volunteers for providing Psychological First Aid to people affected by Covid19 pandemic

·         With these objectives project JAI aims to further reinforce the psychological support and care services for people infected and affected by Covid19 pandemic.

Based on the technical inputs received, following Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) activities were immediately undertaken from March 2020 onwards to generate Covid19 related appropriate behavioural changes among the faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders living in and around the Amity University Haryana campus:

For wider circulation of above Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) material and among the focused communities, it was also uploaded at the home page of Amity University Haryana?s website https://www.amity.edu/gurugram/covid19.aspx The same was also widely circulated among the students, faculty and staff over E-mail, WhatApp and other social networking platforms.

A schedule of Covid19 Tele-Counselling for addressing Mental Health issues was organized by the Faculty of Amity Institute of Behavioural and Allied Sciences (AIBAS) and Amity Institute of Clinical Psychology (AICP), AUH. The names of respective faculty, their contact number, week-wise day, time etc. was widely circulated among the targeted audience.

Following are some of the key desired behaviour and psychological attributes covered in the IEC material and tele-counselling interventions as per the need of clients:

Some of the faculty members are also providing tele-counselling support services through platforms of Professional Associations, Government and district administration lead interventions. Approximately 5000 students have been reached out to provide psychological and emotional support through online counselling sessions. Apart from this faculty and students are involved in the educational and research initiatives focusing Covid19. The focus of such activities is to generate empirical evidences, scientific knowledge and skills to effectively mitigate the impact of Covid19 pandemic.

Some of the other key activities being carried out by team members are:

·           Organizing webinars, panel discussions, guest lectures on different aspects of Covid19

·            Participation in conferences and presentation of scientific papers

·            Publication of research articles in Journals of repute

·            Writing in online blogs, magazines, newsletters, newspapers

·            Submission of project proposal for seeking grant in aid focusing Covid19 pandemic

Workshop on Mental Health and Wellbeing: The educational institutes facilitate development of large repository of academic and other related skills which are related to acquisition of various adaptive behaviors. The ever-increasing demands, pandemic situation and other psychosocial factors have made students vulnerable to stress and mental health

concerns. The development of core competencies in students is dependent on their mental health and wellbeing. In this context, the role of teachers and school counselors is of paramount importance because of their greater accessibility and contact with students. Under the aegis of Global Wellbeing Forum, Amity University Haryana conducted a workshop on mental health and wellbeing of students designed for schoolteachers and counselors on 23 December 2020 with more than 300 participants? covering around 75 schools. Prof. (Dr) Padmakali Banerjee, Pro- Vice Chancellor, AUH chaired the workshop and highlighted the techniques to improve mental health and wellbeing in schools and emphasized on development of optimism and resilience in both teachers and students. Many school Principals were also present in the workshop. Prof. (Dr) Rajesh Nair, AIBAS and Dr Vikas Sharma, AICP dealt with challenges of counseling in the school settings. The resource persons also demonstrated the utility of psychological testing and early detection and remediation of problems in schools.

The wellbeing of participants was also analysed through the LEAP analysis formulated by Prof Banerjee. The analysis facilitated the understanding of self from the perspective of wellbeing.

The LEAP model-based analysis facilitates in measuring psychological Constructs such as:

·       L-Love, passion for what I like to do

·       E- Expertise, meaningfulness

·       A- Adaptability

·       P – Profession

·       S - Spirituality, worthy living

Prof. (Dr) Padmakali Banerjee conducted an interactive live session on “The Power of Positivity- A LEAP for Wellbeing”, a televised programme at Ortho TV and also telecasted at different social media platforms on 4th January 2021 at 9.00 pm under “Monday Motivation programme”. The live motivational programme was attended by scores of Orthopedicians and other medical professionals.

Additionally, as part of School contact programme several panel discussions and webinars have been organized where students of different schools in Delhi-NCR and other neighbouring cities have been reached out on creating awareness related to Covid19 pandemic.

A professional development program for schools-based counsellors was organized on 26th June 2020 on the topic “How to support the children who are in disciplined, low achiever and lacked attention in class” by Prof. Padmakali Banerjee, Pro-Vice Chancellor, AUH. Total 30 counsellors and teachers from various schools in Delhi NCR participated in the intensive program.

Under School Mental Health programme the M. Phil Clinical Psychology part-II trainees of Amity Institute of Clinical Psychology (AICP) conducted work supervision and tele- counselling of students at different schools in Noida, Delhi and Gurgaon. The nature of work assigned was to facilitate school students? coping with exam related stress, problem solving skills, relationship building, interpersonal conflict resolution, coping with stress and mood induction techniques, academic skills like memory enhancement, improve their attention and concentration etc.

The trainees were initially trained and hand-holed by the faculty at AICP through role play method. The nature and dimensions of tele-counselling, how to contact the school students on students?/parent?s phone number and initiate professional dialogue with them or their parents were taught. Approximate 75 students were contacted by the trainees. Each trainee contacted around 8 to 10 students under the supervision of faculty. Academic related concerns were raised by few students and solutions were provided to them as per the requirement. Some students raised the exam related stress issues to which brief intervention was done like