The Counselling Centre will be introducing an online counselling platform for members of the University community to interact and share their concerns with professional counsellors.

 The online counselling, scheduled to start on Monday, April 2, 2018, will enable students and staff to select and communicate with a counsellor on one-to- one basis through the usage of instant messaging App, WhatsApp.

 The Director of the Centre, Prof. Godwin Awabil, who made the announcement said the initiative was to complement the traditional face-to-face approach to counselling.

Prof. Godwin Awabil announced this at the opening of a three-day Suicide Awareness and Prevention Crusade on the theme:” Reaching Out: Preventing Suicide, Saving Lives”. It was aimed at creating awareness about suicide and also view to prevent its occurrence within the University community and its environs.

Dr. Awabil described suicide as a serious public health problem worldwide and added that media reports indicated that suicide in Ghana was on the ascendency. “Between February and March 2017, seven people had committed suicide in less than two weeks in different parts of the country. Recently, both attempted and completed suicide cases have been reported by the media”, he said, citing examples. He disclosed that as part of the programme, the mental health of students and staff would be assessed using depression, anxiety, anger, self-esteem and forgiveness questionnaires.

He said those who would require psychological support would be assisted with the view to improving their mental health.

Present at the seminar were the Provost of the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Prof. L.K Sam-Amoah, the Dean of Educational Foundations, Prof. Eric Nyarko-Sampson and the Dean of Students’ Affairs, Prof. Koawo Edjah.