Park Street: Teachers of St Xavier's College (autonomous) Calcutta discussed with psychiatrists and psychologists common mental health issues faced by students and how teachers can deal with them,

The first-of-its-kind interactive session held on the Park Street campus was aimed at empowering teachers to tackle mental health issues that they notice in students.

"Students are often under severe mental stress, not only because of academic matters. They fail to perform satisfactorily when they go through such difficult situations," said Father Dominic Savio, the principal of the college.

The college hosts faculty improvement programmes at the start of the new session for undergraduate courses every year. The focus of this year's programme is Beyond Mental Health: Talking Wellness - The Person Within, The Person Without".

"There is a wide range of problems that we have to deal with in students. Outside the classroom and sometimes within, students face many problems, some self-created, many induced and generated by the pressures of a technological society that is not fully ready to understand or take responsibility for its actions. This is where the teachers have a special role to play and there is a need to strengthen teachers playing this role," a senior official of the college said.

Psychiatrist Aniruddha Deb and psychologists Smita Singh and Zena Deb conducted an orientation session for the teachers of BCom (morning and evening), MCom, business and management studies and the Raghabpur campus.

Aniruddha Deb spoke on The Modern Teacher - The Teacher and Teaching Institutions in a Rapidly Changing World, while Singh's topic was The Person Within, The Person Without - Life skill Issues to Enhance Better Living and Experience in College and Preparing Students for a Life of Responsible Adulthood and Zena Deb discussed Self Esteem and Self Awareness.