Improved Care and Protection of Girl Children

The following key activities have been conducted by the project team.

1. Referral Sessions: These sessions are being conducted with the children who need regular counselling and face psychological difficulties and clinical symptoms. The appointed mental health team member conducts detailed clinical assessments and if specific problems are found then the case is discussed in the core group meeting for a clear diagnosis. Following this management plans are made and discussed with the concerned staff members. These plans are being implemented by the combined efforts of the team comprising a psychiatrist, psychologist and social workers.

To improve the quality of referral sessions a trainings programmes were organised for the mental health team on management of trauma, assessment of children with autism, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. These exercises helped the staff members in understanding how to identify any atypical behaviour of the child and refer him/her to the counsellor at the earliest.

1. Psycho Social Counselling: The sessions are being conducted for children through informal discussions and problem solving. The key issues dealt in this quarter were drug abuse, relationship issues, and anger management.
2. Group Sessions are being regularly organised to address psycho social issues. These session have been conducted in groups of eight to 10 children. Group work is used to address issues like mental health needs, confidence issues, self-regulation and other day to day concerns. The format of the session is generally exploratory and the focus of the sessions is on the efforts made and the processes involved by children while conducting any exercise and not the end result. The session boost children’s collaborative learning and boost their self-confidence.
3. Enrolling Children with Special needs in Specialized Institutions: The children with learning disabilities have been enrolled in special schools. Five children with learning disability are going to an institute called Orkids for special education classes.
4. Extending In-House Academic and Psychological Support: The teachers and the counsellors are working in tandem for early screening of children with learning difficulties and also to prepare an individual education plan for each child as per their strengths and difficulties. This has helped in improvement of children’s intellectual performance.

Child Development Units (CDUs): The units provide children with neuro-developmental difficulties, a safe, nurturing environment and aim at early screening of mental health problems followed by carefully planned interventions. This was set up in September 2015. At present the CDU is covering seven boys with Autism Spectrum, physical disabilityandattention deficit hyperactive Disorder. Various workshops were conducted with the staff and adolescent children of DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) children home to sensitise them about the neuro developmental difficulties and how they can contribute to CDU activities.

IMPACT

Children with disabilities are also being sensitised and trained about various life skills from time to time which has helped them to adapt well in the outside world.

The mental health team took an initiative to train the coordinators about crisis management, child development, adolescent issues and managing them. The training sessions improved the team’s capacities to address a plethora psychological problems.

Delhi school of communication also conducted a workshop on mass communication with the children above 16 years of age and gave them information about the mass communication.

 The project has enhanced psychological well-being of children in the intervention areas and has improved their access to education and counselling facilities. The project has also resulted in streamlining of career counselling programme. The use of a variety of aptitude tests helped the team and children to find the right career and education options compatible with their personality, interests and skills.

Success Story

Sachin was found by Salaam Baalak Trust staff member in 2014. Once he was brought to one of the shelter homes the team tried to gather his background information but in the process they came to know that he showed signs of intellectual deficits. The counsellors assessed him and took him for therapy sessions to the psychiatrist. The therapy sessions resulted in significant improvements in child’s overall behaviour and communication capacities. The child was previously very quiet and non-responsive and could not follow instructions but over a period to time he became more responsive and interacted with the staff members through play activities.