UCSI hosts the 3rd National Counselling Conference 2016

KUALA LUMPUR: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), around 20% of the world's children and adolescents have mental disorders or problems. While about half of the mental disorders begin before the age of 14, suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds, resulting in over 800,000 death due to suicide every year.

Although treatments are available, many with mental disorders never seek help from a healthcare professional. What prevents help from reaching these suicidal adolescents are mainly the stigma associated with mental health disorders, discrimination and a lack of knowledge.

To combat the issue, UCSI University (UCSI) recently hosted the 3rd National Counselling Conference (NCC), which was participated by over 200 personnel from the counselling and education fields.

The two-day Conference was organised by UCSI’s Student Development & Counselling Department, under the Student Affairs & Alumni (SAA) division. 

Other professional bodies that were involved in the Conference were the Ministry of Education Malaysia, National Population and Family Development Board Malaysia (LPPKN), International Counselling Association of Malaysia (PERKAMA International), Life Line Association Malaysia, New Opportunity for Wellness (N.O.W) and the Malaysian Chinese Community Counselling Association (MCCCA).

  

The NCC was held to empower counsellors, teachers, professionals and parents caring for young people who may be struggling with mental health issues. With the tagline ‘Lending Your Hands, Nourishing Our Future’, the Conference focused on the counselling approaches in dealing with teenagers with different issues and challenges. 

The Conference was officiated by Tengku Azamiah Binti Tengku Ab Majid, Undersecretary, Management Services, Administrative and Diplomatic, Ministry of Health. Tengku Azamiah represented Datuk Dr Chen Chaw Min, the Secretary General of the Malaysian Ministry of Health.

According to Tengku Azamiah, the Conference is indeed a step in the right direction, especially as it centred on enhancing the professional knowledge and skills of counsellors and professional helpers. This will increase their competency in handling various issues affecting teenagers.

“The future lies in the hands of our children – the next generation. It is our duty to guide them and ensure they are not led astray,” she said.

The Conference also explored a wide range of topics through a compelling array of keynote sessions and concurrent in-depth workshops conducted by experienced counsellors. 

This included a talk by the keynote speaker Prof Emeritus Dato’ Dr Amir Awang, the first Malaysian President of the Asian Psychological & Educational Counselling Association (APECA).

During his talk, Dato’ Dr Amir shared with the participants his knowledge and views on the Islamic perspective of counselling in dealing with teenage challenges.

“Troubled teenagers are argumentative and authority-resistant. Exposing them to strict discipline may worsen the situation. So, it is important that we use therapeutic approaches to deal with them and this includes the Islamic perspective of counselling,” he said. 

“However, in order to ethically and competently apply the Islamic perspective, counsellors and psychologists must display the proper knowledge and respect the relevant concepts of other religions,” added the experienced counsellor. 

The Conference also featured two plenary speakers. They are Dr Anjli Panalal K Doshi, Deputy Director General (Policy) of the National Population and Family Development Board Malaysia (LPPKN), Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development and Dr Wan Marzuki Wan Jaafar, Member of the Board of Counsellors, Malaysia.

On day one, Dr Anjali spoke on “Teenage Issues and Challenges: Policy, Programmes and Services”. In her talk, she emphasised the importance and effectiveness of the innovative programmes, services and policies that LPPKN offers to resolve the issues and challenges faced by young people.

Apart from sharing the prevention, cure and treatments, the professional body has to offer, she also spoke about the family-centred approach. In the latter, she urged parents to start making strategic decisions and choices in order to bring about positive change in their teenager’s life. 

This includes understanding adolescent development, being informed about their social and academic life, helping them find healthy ways to relieve their anger and using descriptive praise to reinforce good behaviour.

“Teenagers will push boundaries and experiment with behaviour. When this happens, parents need to change their approaches and seek help from professionals if need be. With the right information, parents may be able to catch their teenagers’ problems early and prevent them from ever veering off the right track,” she said.

Dr Anjli also added that parents today need to be very realistic about what their child can handle in school.

“They may be extremely intelligent and show so much potential, but there is only so much they can take. One of the ways to ease their stress level is to consider limiting the number of tuition classes or extracurricular activities they need to attend per day,” she said. 

On day two, Dr Wan Marzuki delivered a talk on “Becoming a Professional Counsellor”. He shared the different theoretical approaches on becoming a counsellor as well as the challenges in pursuing the profession.

He also emphasised on the importance of having the right characteristics to be an effective counsellor. This includes being encouraging, discreet, emphatic, non-judgemental and self-aware, to name a few. 

  

“You are a counsellor because you want to help people face difficulties in life. And to be an effective counsellor, it is important for you to not be judgemental because instead of judgment, what your client expects from you is a positive concern,” said the counselling expert. 

The two-day Conference then concluded with a forum session on “The Role of Institutions in Nourishing Our Future”.

The forum panellists were, Dato’ Peter Ng, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of UCSI Group; Prof Dato’ Dr Susie See, Regional Director of the National Board for Certified Counsellors (NBCC) Malaysia and Dato’ Dr Abd Halim Bin Mohd Hussin, President of the International Counselling Association of Malaysia (PERKAMA International). 

The forum saw the panellists discussing the strategies and gaps in the role of institutions in nourishing the future leaders. 

They also talked about overcoming the negative stigma, discrimination and neglect that prevents care and treatment from reaching young people with mental disorders.

“When there is neglect, there is no understanding. And without understanding, there is neglect. As counsellors, we must fight this stigma to ensure that those who needs our assistance receive the appropriate treatments,” said Dato’ Dr Abd Halim.

According to Dato’ Peter Ng, to help in nourishing the future leaders, it is important to educate oneself, raise the awareness on counselling, and let the young people know that help is always available for them whenever they need it.

He said that one of the strategies that UCSI had taken to combat the issue is through the services that UCSI’s Student Development & Counselling department offers to the students.

He also shared that from January to April alone; the department had conducted over 400 sessions of one-to-one counselling in general areas and over 100 consultation sessions over specific matters to help the students.

He then added that to raise the awareness on counselling, the University had also conducted a number of activities and workshops dealing with counselling services such as ‘Meet the Counsellor Week’, which was held in collaboration with Life Line Association Malaysia, among others.