At Udayan Ghars, special attention is paid to each child's specific physical and mental health concerns. As most of the children have a history of trauma, which include physical as well as psychological abuse, attempts are made to heal these physical and psychological wounds. Therefore intensive and regular health checks, immunization programmes, psychological therapies and individual counselling sessions make up an integral part of physical and mental health program.

As part of our Mental Health Programme, our children are counselled by a team of Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist and Counsellors.

Mental Health Programme of Udayan Ghars is exclusively focused on the need for emotional and social integration of children who come from difficult circumstances bearing traumatized souls and turbulent psyche. By treating their emotional and behavioral problems through regular counselling and motivational workshops with the guidance of eminent psychiatrists and psychotherapists, children are enabled to realize and use their innate potential to achieve high standards of academic excellence and a brighter future.

The Udayan Care strategy of Living in Family Environment, building family relationships, working together with the child to design and develop a future course of action allied with academics, is rooted in the recognition of the fact that the child is abused and traumatized and needs the problem to be addressed. We also recognize the fact that counseling for such children does not yield a fast result. It is a slow process that takes years of counseling to show positive results. It is also rooted in the understanding that such issues if not addressed, remain lodged in the hearts and minds of children and with time they magnify manifold and do not let the child develop into an integrated personality.

Thus, the most important component of our strategy is addressing Mental Health issues of our children.

The issues with the children in our Homes are as follow:
	Childhood trauma and abuse.
	Violence, non-adjustment (at home, in school, in community), disruptive and conduct disorders like self-deception, lying, stealing, abusive language, etc.
	Habit disorders - bed-wetting, nail biting, thumb sucking, self-injurious behaviour, and suicidal tendencies.
	Lack of personal hygiene.
	Emotional problems like aggression, depression, anxiety, etc.
	Lack of belonging and ownership.
	Lack of motivation and initiative to move forward and take their own responsibility.
	Very low self esteem.

Our mental health people concentrate more on the following areas:
	To formulate certain activities and timetable for children to improve their self control.
	To reduce their tension and feeling of instability.
	To improve their self-esteem and self-confidence.
	To improve their boldness and leadership quality.
	To develop positive self-image and body awareness.

We develop Individual Programme Plan for each Child.

This comprehensive mental health programme would not have been possible without the support of Home of Hope . A US based charitable organisation committed to the rehabilitation of orphaned and abandoned children in India, this is their sixth year of support to Udayan Care. Where they began with donating 6 computers to aid our integrated child development programme, they now fund the Mental Health programme including the salaries of the professional staff for this programme.

Tools & Strategies

Our Mental Health Programme has been effectively implemented since Udayan Care's inception. This has been possible through employment of certain tools and strategies, which are:

Mentoring

Mentoring is the presence of caring individuals who provide young people with support, advice, friendship, reinforcement and constructive examples. Our 13 Mentor Mothers, rightly called Ladies of Vision, have committed themselves for benefit of children. They provide children with a sense of belonging and their care helps greatly in bettering their mental health.

Capacity Building

The fact the children who come to Udayan Ghars, carry a heavy baggage of the past that is ensconced in abuse, trauma, abandonment, etc. emphasizes the need for a specific strategy to deal with children. Regular capacity building workshops are carried out at various levels on issues related to mental health in order to train people at Udayan Care so that they are able to deal effectively with children.

Workshops with Mentor Mothers and professional staff: Every month, a workshop is conducted by Dr. Deepak Gupta, our Consultant, Mental health at the Head office on various issues related to mental health. These workshops besides being very educative are highly interactive. Some of the workshops conducted in the past year are as follows: Emotional Disorders Violent and Suicidal Disorders Disruptive Behaviour Disorders Case presentation and discussion of cases from various Ghars Communication with Traumatised Children Motivation and Academics.

Workshops with Supervisors and Caregivers: Supervisors and Caregivers form an integral part of Udayan Ghars, who spend most of their time with the children. Their duties and responsibilities make them mentally exhausted and they need some support and skills to carry out their duties more fruitfully and in a much more professional manner. Capacity building workshops help them relieve their stress and provide a platform wherein they gather and discuss their issues and concerns. They are also taught some basic skills in parenting and dealing with children especially understanding their own emotions and feelings.

Workshops with Children by the counselors: Weekly Workshops with children form an integral part of our mental health programme. They are conducted in order to impart some basic values, social skills and making these children develop positive self-esteem, confidence, personality development and other issues like health, hygiene, sports. These skills in turn can help them deal with their own traumatized lives and make them more open and receptive, thereby turning them into eternal winners. Some of the themes on which workshops were held this year were laughter, personal hygiene, assertiveness vs. aggression, problem solving, anger management, memory and concentration, etc.

Counselling: Since the children at our Ghars carry a heavy baggage of past, that is ensconced in abuse, trauma, abandonment, being orphaned, getting lost etc., it becomes utmost important to counsel these children and bring back smiles on their faces. To a large extent, we have been trying to do so, through adopting strategies such as art therapy, play therapy, individual counseling through counselors, and by Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. It is ensured that the process is ongoing as even a slightest trigger can slide back a child to one's previous traumatized state of mind.

Medication Some children suffering from aggressiveness, ADID, PTSD etc. have been put under medication after thorough assessment. They are under constant supervision of our Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Dr. Deepak Gupta.

Token Economy Model In order to inculcate good habits in our children, token economy model based on the principals of Incentives and Deductions (Monetary basis) has been adopted. Based on this system, children have been able to save sizable amounts of money and even opened bank accounts. This has aided in raising their self-esteem and giving them a sense of responsibility.

Individual Programme Plan (IPP) IPPs of each and every child are prepared on a regular basis and these are accordingly worked out in close consultation with a team of professionals. A rating scale of 1 to 5 has been developed to assess the child's progress on several parametres.

Exposure Visits to Other NGOs

Exposure visit as an effective tool has been designed in order to give a practical exposure to Udayan Care children by taking them for community visits, other children's homes run by other NGOs. The idea is to impart practical learning experience to our children by making them interact with other children from other shelter homes, first hand knowledge and understanding of life in community areas and slums, hard truths about life; helping them to widen their horizon.

They may be:
1. Field/Community based exposure
2. Agency/Project based exposure

Research Studies

Udayan Care believes in continuous learning and in this regard various research studies have been conducted over the years to assess the various strategies adopted for the well being of children at our homes. These studies help us provide feedback and identify our gaps.

List of Research Studies conducted in 2005-06

List of Research Studies conducted in 2004-05