MCM College: “Heart-to-Heart” Peer Counselling Scheme 2020
     
   
 
In order to better support the well-being of MCMers, promote pyschological health awareness, and build a culture of kindness in the college, MCM College launched a "Heart-to-Heart" Peer Counselling Scheme in collaboration with the university’s Psychological Counselling Center and Centre for Macau Studies in September 2020. Through recruitment, interview, training and assessment, 12 qualified peer counsellors were finally selected. This group of peer counsellors have successfully completed 36 hours of training provided by the psychological counselling team and the college’s resident fellow, the content includes basic counselling skills, mental health first aid knowledge, "Step-by-Step" e-helper training, teamwork and event planning skills.
After completing the training, the peer counsellors began to provide service in the college. They promoted psychological health messages to MCMers during the "Mental Health Awareness Week" in October, and planned online and offline kindness challenge activities during the "Kindness Challenge Week" in November to let kindness spread from the college. To assist the Centre for Macau Studies in modifying and testing the "Step-by-Step" mental health mobile app, MCM College recruited nearly 20 service users in need in October and provided support services through peer counselors so that they can use the app effectively and enhance their mental health conditions. During the service provision period, each peer counselor contacted service users and provided support via phone or text messages every week, 15-20 minutes each time, for 8 consecutive weeks. In order to ensure the quality of service, peer counsellors participated in a one-hour supervision meeting every week to share and discuss cases with the clinical supervisor from UM Psychological Counselling Center. (the process strictly followed the principle of confidentiality)
After a series of intensive training and lengthy service practice, the peer counsellors have benefited a lot. Here is their sharing:
"After participating in this scheme, I have a deeper understanding of depression and the importance of mental health to people. In the process of helping the service user, I found that people are not as strong as they seem to be. Everyone has vulnerability in their hearts. When you think people around you are moaning without illness, it may be that they are sending you a signal for help. In this scheme, I am constantly improving my empathy ability. I learned how to think about problems from the perspective of others. I also found that in life, we really need mutual understanding and respect. Sometimes, our little care and kindness towards others may save a person. I also felt happy in the process of helping others and seeing others getting better. This is a very meaningful scheme and I have benefited a lot from it.” - Christine Wang
“From the pressure of participating in intensive training and rigorous assessment at the beginning, to the tension of contacting the service users as a e-helper, and finally assisting service users to complete all the tasks of "Step-by-Step" mental health mobile app, I felt that the whole process was a bit hard and long, but it also benefited me a lot. Through this project, I realized the importance of ‘learning to get along with negative emotions’. We always avoid negative emotions, because it does cause us a lot of trouble. But only when we realize that it is part of our daily lives and learn to accept it, we will no longer be bothered by it.” - Ben Zeng
“In the past, when I always felt that some things could not be done well or could not be solved by myself, the help of others was lacking. However, after participating in this ‘Step-by-Step’ community health programme, I discovered that the help of others is only a light push and boost, and I am the main force in getting things done. Although I care about the service users, in reality, not each one of them can persevere and complete the task. In this situation, the more I want to help, the more I feel alienated. I can only tell myself to maintain a sense of empathy, and understand that everyone encounters difficulties and needs help, but sometimes it is very difficult for some people to take a step to make changes, so I have to encourage service users who are already trying hard.” – Rainy Puk
“I served as a team leader in the ‘Kindness Challenge Week’ to design daily kindness challenge activities with our team members. Kindness is a very abstract concept. I didn’t have a clue when preparing at the beginning. I didn’t know how to tell everyone what kindness is and how to promote acts of kindness in our college. Under the guidance of our resident fellow, Alice, we finally designed the activities based on the ‘Five Languages of Love’. The purpose of our activities was to encourage MCMers to truly convey kindness to others through simple actions such as sending an uplifting text, a smile, a small gift, and a little act of kindness. When I saw many MCMers participating in the activities we designed, I felt a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. I think this event was very meaningful, and it gave us an opportunity to practice kindness through interaction, so that kindness is no longer an empty slogan.” – Kiki Yang |