What Our Subject is About
Offered by the counselling team at Raffles Guidance Centre, the Peer Helpers Programme (PHP) aims to train peer helpers to serve their school community by being able to listen to their friends’ difficulties, to refer their friends to help and to provide general peer support to their schoolmates. PHP seeks to guide students to be more reflective and self-aware so that they have more empathy towards themselves and the wider community. Through the programme, they will also develop a better understanding of the needs of students around them. This is in keeping with the aims and objectives of the goals of the Raffles Programme, which is to develop well-rounded, holistic individuals, with a sense of citizenship and stewardship.
The Peer Helpers Programme will allow students to:
- increase their self-awareness and ability to reflect
- better understand their peers
- improve their ability to listen
- develop better relationship skills
- learn, experience and practice basic counselling techniques (e.g. active listening, summarising, paraphrasing, reflecting back feelings, expressing empathy, and non-verbal attending skills such as posture and eye-contact),
- learn when and how to encourage a referral to an appropriate professional
- learn and practise self-care techniques
- find out more about common mental health issues in youths, (e.g. mental wellness, depression, anxiety, stress etc.)
Peer helpers at a Commencement Ceremony upon completion of their training
What We Do To Develop Students' Interest/Abilities
We offer the following activities in the Peer Helpers Programme:
- intensive weekly training workshops for basic counselling skills
- regular reflection exerciseshands-on peer helping skills practices
- direct peer helping to students in individual and/or group settings
- planning and running the activities for Mental Health Awareness Week in Term 3 for the RI student population
- working on a mental health related project in groups (video/pamphlet, presentation/workshop, surveys etc.)
- managing a safe space (My Rest Space) for the RI Community
- participating in the Raffles Science Symposium: Mental Health Science Strand
- attending learning journeys to relevant organisations involved in mental health (e.g. Singapore Association of Mental Health, Institute of Mental Health, Samaritans of Singapore etc.)
- peer sharing to the student population on mental health related topics, e.g. Civics Lesson, January Induction Programme
- working in Function Groups (e.g. video production, website, logistics, art and design, programme, publicity, administration, etc.) to organise mental wellbeing and mental health advocacy projects/events in RI
Who We Are
We are a happy and fun team of professional counselors and psychologist. We bond over our shared love of good food and exploring new places / activities. We are highly creative problem-solvers who think out of the box to find solutions for issues faced by students.
We are proud to share that the Peer Helpers Programme won the Silver award in the MOE Innergy Awards 2020.
What Our Peer Helpers Say
“I will be more aware of the people around me who show signs of mental illness such as depression, so that I can talk to them first and see if they are okay.”
“I am more willing to approach and comfort my friends who are upset, especially those who have mental illnesses.”
“I have learnt that an important aspect of peer helping is just being there to listen, instead of being hasty to offer advice.”
“I have learnt that mental illness in Singapore is a serious condition especially amongst youth, and that often it is subtle and not obvious in nature.”