NIMHANS launches online course to train faculty as student well-being ambassadors

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The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) campus in Bengaluru. | Photo Credit: Sudhakara Jain

To strengthen campus mental health support and facilitate timely referrals for students in distress, NIMHANS-Bengaluru will launch an online certificate course for Student Wellbeing Ambassadors in higher education institutions.

To be launched on the occasion of World Mental Health Day on October 10, the self-paced course will be offered through the NIMHANS Digital Academy by the institute’s Department of Clinical Psychology. The first batch will accommodate up to 350 participants, with applications open until October 30. Classes are scheduled to begin in November.

The course is open to faculty members from any discipline, wardens, deans, and student welfare officers who have at least three years of service remaining, and are nominated by their institutions.

Participants will learn to recognise signs of student distress, respond supportively, reduce stigma around mental health, and encourage students to seek appropriate help. The programme is also intended to strengthen suicide-risk reduction efforts.

The three-month course will involve 12 to 15 hours of learning through videos, quizzes, assignments, reflective exercises, and reading materials.

NIMHANS clarified that the course is not professional training in counselling, psychology, or psychotherapy. Instead, it will help faculty understand the role and limits of a well-being ambassador, and work within existing student support and crisis-response systems.

The initiative is among the steps towards implementing Karnataka’s student mental health policy for higher education. NIMHANS is also developing a follow-up programme to help trained faculty apply the learning in their institutions.

Course details and online application forms are available on the NIMHANS website and the NIMHANS Digital Academy website under Course Announcements.

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