Seminar on ‘Young People in Changing World: Obstacles & Opportunities’

The Social Counseling Centre of University of Asia Pacific organized a seminar on ‘Young People in Changing World: Obstacles & Opportunities’ on 24 October, 2018 in the seminar room of Department of Business Administration, UAP.

The seminar was organized to celebrate the World Mental Health Day 2018. The theme of these years’ world mental health day was ‘Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World’. Keeping the theme in mind the seminar was designed to address the psychological challenges that the university students face in the modern world. The seminar addressed issues such as internet and substances abuses, cyber bullying, adjustment issues and how the students can overcome those issues by building psychological resiliency.

The key speakers of the seminar were Dr. Helal Uddin Ahmed, Associate Professor, Dept. of Child Adolescent & Family Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Ms. Nissim Jan Sajid, Lead Counselor& Additional Managing Director, Psychological Health and Wellness Clinic, Dhaka.

Ms. Nissim talked about the importance of mental health for the university going students and how that affects their academic achievement. She pointed out the difficulties that university going students face and showed recent research findings on adjustment issues, gender based violence, cyber bullying and substance abuse.

Dr. Helal discussed about what is psychological resiliency and how can young people develop psychological resiliency. He showed several research findings on depression, suicide and substance abuse. He emphasized on the severity of depression among young people. He pointed out that suicide is the second most leading cause of death among young people across the world. He explained the ways of becoming psychologically resilient and how students can restrain themselves from difficult life situation and contribute more to the society.

The seminar ended with a lively Q&A session.