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).