Every child has the right to play and have recreation. He/ she also deserves to get a basic education in order to develop their potential and get a decent standard of living. Meanwhile, to maintain mental health, he/ she is entitled to having compassion, love and understanding.
According to Prof. dr. Sunartini Hapsara, Ph.D., Sp. A (K), that to realize this goal, during the pregnancy, he/she deserves to get nutrition supply, adequate health care and education freely. In addition, a child has the right to get a full opportunity for playing and recreation. "Unfortunately, in reality, they just have to do a pile-up of homework for school. This activity limits children to play," she said at Faculty of Psychology UGM, Friday (2/12).
Speaking at a workshop Mental Health at School: a Comprehensive Approach organized by the Faculty, Sunartini explained that the various rights of children should ideally be met. The fulfillment of children’s rights includes education, opportunity to grow, a chance to be creative and to participate in everyday life.
She hopes the children are given the opportunity of expression and achievement through a variety of access without discrimination, coercion and violence. "All are expected in accordance with the rules and regulations. This is an effort to empower a healthy child," she explained.
Discussing the contribution of neuropsychological aspect in building students’ mental health, Sunartini said not a few children are referred to to a physician, psychologist or other professional schools because of one or two problems, whether difficulties in learning, attention and behavior or because of the difficulty of socialization or emotional control, and disease or problems related to congenital development that affects the brain. "However, sometimes the problems that are found are also due to brain injury because of accidents, birth trauma, and other physical pressures," said the neuro-developmental specialist of UGM Faculty of Medicine.
Therefore, she said, contribution of neuropsychological aspect in the form of neuropsychological evaluation is required. Neuropsychological evaluation helps understand brain functions of children in some areas, such as memory, attention, perception, coordination and personality better.
Another speaker, dr. Carla Raymondalexas Marchira, Sp.Kj, deplored limitation of a meeting between children and parents today. Due to parents’ business, children are often "entrusted" to the school, studying at school until the afternoon. "The meeting time is limited, if there is any, usually parents already feel tired so the quality of meeting between parents and children is low," she said.
Moreover, there is technology development especially the internet. The children prefer to spend time in front of the computer, because they feel what they need is met. "They look for entertainment by playing on-line games and searching the data for school work. They can find answers with anything with a single "click" in a split second. However, if parents are not careful, they might open pornography sites, which is certainly not expected by us, but very easy to do by them," she said again.
Discussing student’s risk of developing mental health disorders, Carla who is a psychiatrist of Faculty of Medicine UGM and Dr. Sardjito General Hospital, is concerned with today’s city life. Although there are no clear studies having been conducted, but empirically, life in big cities is marked more by social interaction that is individualistic and consumptive. In contrast, life in small town is more on kinship.
For her, modern life requires wisdom in filtering all the information that flows without stopping. The ease in obtaining information via the Internet must be addressed with caution. "Especially for those who are still in school, school days are the days where children and teenagers have very high curiosity," she explained.