Mpower's contribution towards mental health concerns. How is remedial therapy performed at Mpower?

Mpower's contribution towards mental health concerns. How is remedial therapy performed at Mpower?

In India, it is hard to change perceptions identified with Mental Health. The challenge lies in fixing the innate conditioning, and empowering individuals to look for help. Mental health is a subject riddled with stigma, sensitive issues & concerns. The discrimination caused by stigma can only be eradicated through constant efforts to create awareness.
This will encourage acceptance, & help those suffering from mental illnesses to gain freedom. At Mpower, we hope to support the fact that most mental health concerns are treatable, just like any other medical condition. Seek help today.
In order to empower professionals, teachers, parents & families of the community; we, at Mpower, work towards creating a body of knowledge, expertise & specialists in the field of mental health & providing those in need with:

• resources and information;
• mental health awareness organization;
• training and guidance;
• mental health counseling online;
• diagnostic evaluation;
• therapeutic intervention;
• psychological counselling.

Mpower was born to be the movement to affect change; to promote mental health & well-being in the most holistic manner conceivable. The need of the hour is to promote mental wellness, by providing mental healthcare solutions to all. At Mpower, we provide the following services through the clinical units.
At Mpower - The Centre, we provide holistic mental health care solutions to children, adolescents, young people, & adults.
Through The Mpower Movement, we strive to bring about a cultural shift & a change in the mind-set of people by addressing misconceptions, fostering positive attitudes, disseminating correct information, & alleviating stigma related to mental illnesses.
With our Movement, we strive to bring about a cultural shift & a change in the mindset of people by addressing: -

• MISCONCEPTIONS
• FOSTERING
• POSITIVE ATTITUDES
• DISSEMINATING
• CORRECT INFORMATION
• ALLEVIATING
• STIGMA.

MPOWER has therefore contributed immensely to the area of Mental Health issues through its various initiatives such as:

SUNO DEKHO KAHO
We advocate normalizing conversations around Mental Health as healthily as we talk about physical health. In the wake of recent times, we at Mpower, feel it is important to dispel the hush-hush, the taboo, & the stigma around mental health. In this video, Mrs. Neerja Birla answers Mr.Amitabh Bachchan’s questions about Mental Health, signs & symptoms of mental illnesses & how to address mental health concerns.

LETTERS OF HOPE - WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY 2020
The Letters of Hope campaign was designed as an effort to make a contribution & participate in World Suicide Prevention Day, observed on the 10th of September. Suicide is a complex issue & one that has a profound effect not just on the person but on their family too. Hence, it is important that we come together to make a contribution towards this cause no matter how small it may be. With this in mind, the students of The Aditya Birla Integrated School (TABIS) collaborated with Mpower to reach out to their peers in schools across the country to send in their letters of hope. In less than a month, we received close to 200 letters from students in 21 schools, across 13 cities.

MPOWER’S PROFESSIONAL CONCLAVE
Mpower believes in maintaining & creating a high ethical standard within the field of mental health. The Mpower professional's conclave is a gathering of professionals working in the space of child & adolescent mental health.

BE THE CHANGE - A MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE FOR STAKEHOLDERS OF EDUCATION
Be the Change is a conference that delved into an interactive dialogue on the need for mental health awareness in the Indian education system to equip schools & colleges with meaningful knowledge to affect change.

RIDE TO MPOWER (2016 - 2020)
An annual cycle ride aimed at spreading awareness & challenging stigma experienced by people with mental health concerns - over 8200 participants in the last 5 years, who pledged their support to the cause.

WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY (2017 - 2019)
Every year, Mpower creates cross platform digital campaigns leading up to World Suicide prevention day, aimed at spreading awareness, sensitising the masses & stamping out stigma around mental health concerns.

WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY (2017 - 2019)
During World Mental Health Day, Mpower conducts social media campaigns and activities to raise awareness and encourage dialogue around mental health, in collaboration with the influencers and art & culture platforms

THE HAPPY PLACE (2017 - 2019)
The Happy Place is a student-led mental health festival organised as a collaborative event between Mpower and the Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA) to give students a platform to voice their opinions about mental health concerns.

THE MPOWER CONCLAVE (2017 - 2019)
Keeping with the spirit of Mpower & the aim to provide a high quality of care, the Mpower Conclave is a specialized collaboration meet, designed for professionals to share ideas, develop skills, & network.

BE THE CHANGE - A MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE FOR STAKEHOLDERS OF EDUCATION
Be the Change is a conference that delved into an interactive dialogue on the need for mental health awareness in the Indian education system to equip schools & colleges with meaningful knowledge to affect change.

THE MPOWER FEST (2017-2018)
The Mpower Fest is a music concert to raise awareness about mental health headlined by Arijit Singh in 2017, & featuring artistes such as Vishal-Shekhar, Armaan-Amaal Malik and Shalmali Kholgade in 2018, where over 20,000 Mumbaikars pledged their support for a Mental Health positive society.

ART EXPRESS (2019 - 2020)
A community led initiative where people come together & paint the city walls in Mumbai & Bengaluru, to break taboos & bring the conversation about mental health out into the open where it cannot be ignored. It is a multifaceted approach, customizing remedial intervention plans to a child’s specific needs. It makes use of one-on-one instruction, small group instruction, written work, verbal work & computer-based work and it focuses on skills rather than on content. The Remedial Therapy provided uses behaviour teaching methods, which have clearly defined goals & strategies and is tailored & customized to each child’s specific needs. Within the remedial therapy sessions, children are involved in individual or group activities, gross motor & fine motor activities which are scheduled to form a part of & into the child’s daily routine.

SKILLS

Functional skills – Daily routine
Gross and Fine motor skills – sensory
Language or Vocabulary Development
Social and behaviour skills
Academics and functional academics
Help is offered to learners who need assistance. These learners are often children who function at a lower than average level because of a certain learning or behavioural problem or disability, but it can also be offered to pupils who achieve at a higher than average level, they too can do with the extra attention & care.
An experienced group of nurturing educators who with unconditional positive regard, endless patience & innovative methodologies help each child with special education needs. They help deal with the complexities of their academic difficulties with greater ease & strategically carve a niche in their specific areas of excellence.

REMEDIAL THERAPY AT MPOWER:
Remedial Education (RE) is a part of Special Education at Mpower- The Centre. It is a therapy which utilizes special teaching strategies for children with different types of learning difficulties. These may include students diagnosed with Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit or Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism & other special needs. RE tries to improve upon the deficient skills of the child.

It helps:

• improve focus & work habits
• work on basic concepts like logical categorization & analytical skills
• build skills & strategies which help them manage learning or attention issues and improve school work
• improve attention skills & phonetics awareness
• help with the child’s academic skills, social communication & boosts self-confidence
• teach time management & organizational skills
• provide a safe environment for discussing school & to learn how to self-advocate
• act as a link between home & school

At Mpower, the Remedial Therapist assist students to overcome learning disabilities. They focus on assisting children who have conditions that interfere with learning, such as ADD, ADHD, & those with language & reasoning disabilities such as dyslexia (difficulty with reading, writing, & spelling) & dyscalculia (difficulty with mathematics).

When learning problems go undetected, children develop feelings of hopelessness, & as they become increasingly aware of their ‘failure’ & lack of achievement, they spiral downward & are eventually labelled as lazy or ‘problem’ children. Emotional problems that develop in children with learning difficulties can be more debilitating than the learning difficulty itself.

Also read: https://mpowerminds.com/blog/What-is-remedial-therapy-When-is-the-right-time-to-take-remedial-therapy

At Mpower, we usually examine the students' workbooks & working sheets for indications of their problems, & then test them to confirm or diagnose them. We make use of various remedial aids & methods & advise teachers & parents on ways to assist the students concerned.

The process of receiving Remedial therapy at Mpower includes:

• A Psycho-educational Assessment
• Forming an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) based on the above assessment
• Remedial Education Sessions based on the IEP
• IEP – An IEP is a written document which highlights the goals for the students for a given duration. The duration is dependent on the type and degree of difficulties as stated in the assessment report. Typically, an IEP is planned for a specific duration. The goals identified in the IEP is mutually agreeable to the parents and the educator and the other therapists involved.
• Information and ideas from a multidisciplinary team, including the parents and student, are important for developing an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that meets the unique needs of each student with learning or any disabilities. A carefully developed multidisciplinary approach will make instruction meaningful for students.
• For some students who read slowly or with difficulty, a “read-along” technique is used with taped texts and materials to allow learning of printed materials.
• For students who read below expected levels, educational videos and films or talking books are provided; the general information that cannot be acquired from the printed page.
• For students with short term memory problems (e.g., understand math processes, but have short term memory problems that interfere with remembering math facts), a table of facts or a calculator could be provided.
• For students whose handwriting is slow, illegible or includes many reversed letters, a special Writing program is exclusively inculcated
• To develop memory and listening skills, poetry, rhymes, songs, audio-taped materials and mnemonics may improve performance is extensively used.
• To teach spelling, the therapist uses a multi-sensory approach that combines saying, spelling aloud, and writing words.
• Ways to improve vocabulary and comprehension can include a student-developed file of vocabulary words and the use of word webs and visual organizers to relate words and ideas heard or read on paper. A dictionary or thesaurus, suited to the child’s learning level, is also an excellent tool used for building vocabulary, spelling and reading comprehension.
• For students who have difficulty organizing time, materials and information, a variety of approaches can be used, including:
• a quiet, uncluttered work space
• alarm watch
• purchased texts that can be marked with a highlighter
• a homework assignment diary coordinated between the therapist and the parent
• study skills instruction
• a personally-developed date-book or scheduler
• For students who copy inaccurately, but need written practice to solidify learning, changes that may help include: leaving a space directly under each word, phrase or sentence, or having handouts on the desk for those who can’t copy from the blackboard or take dictation accurately. For left-handed students, we place the list of words at the right margin. For students whose writing is large, we provide enlarged spaces for “fill in the blank” activities.
• Oral and written language is taught together as much as possible. Illustrations in a book being read is used to generate conversation, vocabulary and concepts that will relate to what is to be read. Material that is read is translated into a verbal summary, a word web, a visual organizer, or a computer presentation.
• Since reading is central to learning, children who do not learn to read by the second grade are likely to struggle with learning throughout. Reading assessment include skill levels in decoding, fluency and comprehension.
• As children learn to read, they learn how spoken and written language relate to each other. Thus, the components of a reading program must also relate to one another, engage all children and meet their individual needs. Reading skills are enhanced through:
• Listening to good stories and books, appropriate to the child’s age are read.
• Language games that encourage identification of rhyming words and creation of rhymes are played through the playtime
• Instruction and practice in phonemic awareness, alphabetic knowledge, alphabetic principles, decoding strategies, vocabulary acquisition, fluency and comprehension is practiced immensely.
• Theories on mathematics disabilities view spatial visualization and verbal skills as critical. These two skill areas are important for anyone learning mathematics, but are especially important for students with learning disabilities. These areas should be heavily emphasized in the teaching and remediation of mathematical concepts and skills.
• An individualized education program in mathematics would concentrate on developing concepts and skills within such strands as: numeration, geometry, measurement, collection and interpretation of data, estimation/mental computations, patterns and relations and word problems/applications. Concepts are best introduced with “hands-on” concrete materials. Knowing one-digit facts is important, but work with paper and pencil algorithms should not be emphasized, since calculations can be done with calculators if memory or sequencing is a problem.
• Estimation strategies are often taught as mental computations skills are developed. Students should be encouraged to draw illustrations and representations whenever possible. They should consistently discuss, read and write as they solve more complex computational and word problems. For students with learning disabilities, confidence in the practical applications of mathematics to everyday life is also very important.

Find Mpower Centre near you here- https://mpowerminds.com/contact

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