It is disturbing to read the report in English daily that some 20 per cent of children in schools are depressed as shown by a study conducted by NHMS. One of the causes cited for depression was lack of parental guidance. Parents fail to understand their children, in particular, their emotional needs.
As advocated by deputy director-general of health (public health) Datuk Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman, schools, in particular, parent-teacher associations (PTAs) should provide social support through holding parenting courses. Parenting seminars and courses should be made mandatory to identify mental health problems among children.
Parenting skills are essential for parents to cope up with
the mental issue of students talked about much today. One of the best ways to
impart the skills is through parenting seminars, workshops and courses. At
large, not many parenting programmes are organized in schools, whether primary
or secondary schools. In the West parenting programmes for parents are
conducted regularly to educate the parents on the parenting skills, unlike in
Malaysia parenting programmes are scarcely conducted in schools.
As one who is involved in conducting such programmes, I see this as a wake-up call to all PTAs and parents.
They need to collaborate and tackle this problem. We should not allow more of our children to succumb to this mental problem.
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