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The Student Support Centre (SSC)

https://ssc.manipal.edu/Default.aspx

Student Support Centre (SSC) is a completely confidential service devoted to supporting the emotional well-being of students.

Student Support Centre (SSC)  offers therapy sessions with qualified clinical psychologists, covered by student medical insurance (Medicare).

Keeping in mind that going to large hospitals often distresses students and dissuades them from seeking help, the Student Support Centre (SSC)  is located in a quiet residential area that ensures privacy and accessibility.

No. 125 is a charming little house with a sloping tiled roof. It has cool red-oxide flooring, aged wooden rafters for ceilings, and well-lit rooms that exude warmth. A stately Amaltas tree (laburnum) grows across the wall that encloses a little garden of flowering bushes. Inside the house are bookshelves, couches to sink into, artwork on the walls, and the hum of empathetic silence. This is a safe space.

Modelled along the lines of counselling and wellness centres at the best universities in the world, the Student Support Centre (SSC)  at Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) is among very few such services in India.

Student Support Centre (SSC)  has set up a Student Advisory Board comprising of student leaders from all institutes that will work to ensure a student-friendly approach, and refer students in need of help to the Centre. It also conducts awareness campaigns and outreach sessions across institutes and extends the university’s efforts towards supporting differently-abled students.

Student Support Centre (SSC)  conducts clinical assessments and gives referrals to psychiatry department at the Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, with the consent of clients. Emergency and other hospital charges would be taken care of through the existing Medicare system at the Kasturba Medical College and Hospital, Manipal.

Student Support Centre (SSC)  operates as an independent unit that reports to the Vice Chancellor, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal.

Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) is a university that is constantly striving to maintain international standards of excellence, certainly in academic output, but equally in the holistic emotional, mental, and physical well-being of its students.

Over the many years of its existence, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) has provided all its students health insurance, a dedicated health lounge and facilities in the hospital, and encouraged faculty mentorship of individual students. To further assist and support student needs, and to give easy access to adequate support for mental and physical disabilities and challenges, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE)’s Vice Chancellor Dr H Vinod Bhat inaugurated this unique psychotherapy facility on March 31, 2017.

By fortuitous coincidence, Student Support Centre (SSC)  was set up in the same year that the World Health Organization has devoted to mental health under its campaign slogan ‘Depression: Let’s talk’. The World Health Organization has identified depression as the single largest contributor and leading cause of mental and physical disability across the world. It is the second leading cause of death (by suicide) in the 15 – 29 years age group. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, a suicide is committed in India every five minutes and a third of all suicides in India falls within this age group. The Student Support Centre has linked with the WHO campaign on raising awareness around mental health and aspires to contribute to public education about issues that affect young people, such as sexual abuse, suicide, and substance abuse.

Objectives of the Student Support Centre: –

1. To offer practical and constructive support to students in adjusting to a new environment as well as social or personal challenges that are specific to their age group and circumstances.

2. To spread awareness about ways to cope with academic pressures that often lead to mental health difficulties, and to assist students with the academic concerns that emerge from dealing with any short or long-term health condition.

3. To treat mental and physical disabilities as not merely a pathological problem but as a more complex situation that requires the care of specialists who offer constant support through long periods of treatment and recovery.

4. To help combat the general social taboos associated with anxieties and depression on campus, and to foster a positive outlook among students.

5. To establish the University campus as a student-friendly safe space that is sensitive to physical and mental disabilities.

Student Support Centre (SSC) offers the following services to its students –

1. Complete privacy and confidentiality in its services, unless the student permits disclosure. All files and records stay within the Student Support Centre (SSC).

2.  First line of intervention and counseling for any issues that may be causing concern to you or anyone you know

3. Appointments with clinically trained psychologists who have experience working with this age group. Some of the psychologists have received certification in QACP (Queer Affirmative Counseling Practice) conducted by the Mariwala Health initiative in 2021.

4.  Appointments and referrals, if thought necessary, to a visiting psychiatrist at the same Centre

5.  Website with relevant resources, information, emergency contact numbers, etc.

6.  Awareness drive and outreach programs.

 

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