Mental Health and Trauma Counselling Module as Strategy to Enhance Counsellors’ Competency in Handling Trauma Cases Caused by Flood Calamity

Bera and Temerloh are two districts in Pahang with the worst flood calamity recorded within the country towards the end of 2014 and early 2015. This calamity has destroyed not only properties, but also deeply affected the victims psychologically especially the students. Some of the victims show symptoms of crisis and trauma in short terms and long terms which are affecting the wellbeing of their lives. These victims might suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) if their symptoms of crisis and trauma are not treated accordingly. As such, the presence of counselling teachers competent in mental health and trauma counselling are essential in such critical moment. However, most counselling teachers are not well-trained particularly in handling mental health counselling in order to help the victims. There are four main objectives of the Knowledge Transfer Program (KTP): i) to develop human capital among the Graduate Interns (GI) who would be competent in handling and transferring the mental health and trauma counselling knowledge; ii) to enhance knowledge and competency level of the counselling teachers in managing mental health and trauma counselling; iii) to increase support, coping skills and resilience of the community to bounce back and recover from the symptoms of crisis and trauma caused by the flood; and iv) to acquire recognition to the academicians as experts in mental health and trauma counselling through the Mental Health and Trauma Counselling module (MHTC). The knowledge transfer program is implemented through workshops and practical training to 80 counselling teachers in Bera and Temerloh districts in Pahang. Results from the program show that: i) the GI have high competency level in handling the delivery of mental health and trauma counselling which includes mental healthcare, assessing the symptoms of crisis and trauma, managing the crisis and trauma intervention, and managing the trauma counselling; ii) the counselling teachers are competent in managing the mental health and trauma counselling which includes mental healthcare, assessing the symptoms of crisis and trauma, and trauma counselling; iii) the community members particularly the students who were traumatized by the flood received help through crisis intervention and trauma counselling by the counselling teachers who offered support to increased their coping skills and resilience; and iv) the academicians have received recognition from various parties especially from the Districts Education Offices of Malaysia, Police, and the International Counsellors Association of Malaysia or PERKAMA International.