Bhutan Board For Certified Counselors To Be Established

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Her Majesty Gyalyum  Sangay  Choden Wangchuck signs the MOU at RENEW conference hall

The Royal Civil Service Commission, Royal University of Bhutan, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour and Human Resources, Gross National Happiness Commission, Bhutan Narcotics Control Agency, Royal Bhutan Police, National Commission for Women and Children and RENEW endorsed the proposal to establish Bhutan Board for Certified Counselor (BBCC) in Bhutan On the 9th August 2013 . To this effect a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed to establish the BBCC in support of Her Majesty Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck’s noble initiative to develop a cadre of Mental Health professionals providing counseling services in different areas such as career, violence, child protection issues, trauma, abuse, suicide, rape, substance abuse, family, school, HIV, Depression, anxiety, natural disasters and emergencies to name some.

The board will develop professional standards and procedures for certification of counseling professionals to practice in Bhutan. In such a profession a National Board to maintain the check and balances of the counseling service providers like psychologist, social workers, psychiatrists, counselors in the Country will highly contribute to the most desirable impact of the profession in the mental wellbeing and productive behavior of all the concerned.

Therefore the purpose of the BBCC would be protection of the profession and clients, standardizing the profession in the country, monitoring and supervision, maintain the National Network of Counseling professionals, facilitate continuing education, award certificates, facilitate the award of license to practice, liaison with other concerned agencies to support the profession and configuration with the international standards and practices.

During the signing of the MOU at the RENEW conference hall, Her Majesty stated, “Counseling is an emergent, evolving and dynamic profession currently experiencing rapid growth, generally bringing positive behavior changes. Having certification is giving due recognition to counseling since it involves working with complex and sensitive issues that makes the work of counseling professionals very difficult.  Therefore, it is pertinent that we work towards upholding the profession with dignity and respect”. Her Majesty commended the support and commitment by the stakeholders because of which tremendous progress have been made.

In the Year 1996, A Royal Decree was issued by His Majesty the Fourth King to establish a systematic Youth Guidance and Counseling Program to address the increasing youth issues in the Country. Thereafter, Her Majesty Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck has also continuously reiterated the importance of counseling in the community to promote positive mental health in the community to improve the wellbeing of the Bhutanese people in order to promote Gross National Happiness.

Source: Thebhutanese, aug 16 2013

Bhutan Board for Certified Counsellors launched

Sep 12 2013

To standardise, promote and facilitate counselling profession, Bhutan Board for Certified Counsellors, BBCC was launch in Thimphu, today. The Founder and President of RENEW, Her Majesty the Queen Mother Sangay Choden Wangchuck, grace the launching ceremony.

Addressing the gathering, Her Majesty the Queen Mother said the launch marks an important milestone in strengthening counselling services in the country. Her Majesty said over the years, the need for the counselling services have become even greater with an increasing mental health disorder, domestic violence, and sexual abuse among others.

“It is heartening to note that over the years several individuals and organisations have acknowledged the problems and have initiated programmes to provide counselling services. Today we have many young men and women who have been educated in counseling and psychology from universities around the world.

“These young professionals have chosen a vocation to serve humanity and it is our responsibility and in the best interest of our citizenry to provide then support and assistance to carry out their noble task,” said Her Majesty the Queen Mother.  

The BBCC will certify the councellors and their license to practice. The Board will also provide platform for the counselors to exchange ideas and to enhance their skills. It will also maintain the network of counsellors.

“They will also help in standardising and professionalising to the International standard,” said the Director of the Counselling Department of RENEW, Tshering Dolkar, adding that the standards will be relevant to Bhutan. “Board will also bring the counsellors who are practicing in different fields and see whether they are following the required standard that the Board set for practicing councellors.”

The launch was followed by a two day bi-annual counselling conference attended by counsellors from various fields. The conference is organised by RENEW with funds from the National Board of Certified Counsellors in the US and UNICEF

source: www.bbs.bt

BBCC Launched

Her Majesty the Queen Mother Sangay Choden Wangchuck launched the Bhutan Board for Certified Counselors (BBCC) aimed to develop the counseling profession and help address escalating metal health issues in Bhutan on Wednesday.

Speaking at the event, Her Majesty shared her concerns on the need of counseling services with increasing urban population which adds to an increase in the cases of the mental health disorders, domestic violence, sexual abuse, rape, drugs and substance abuse.

Her Majesty assured the BBCC will advance the development, promotion and credentialing of counselors and would meet the people needs when dealing with mental health issues, addiction, and trauma of abuse and violence in the age growing social complexities.

Executive director of Respect, Educate, Nurture, and Empower Women (RENEW) Chimi Wangmo also shared her concerns with the changing society of Bhutanese across the social, economic, political and technological structures which creates substantial challenges for the society. She cited a few challenges currently faced by the society such as competition for jobs, maintaining traditions and culture, domestic violence, divorce, suicide, substance abuse, unintended teenage pregnancy, conflicts in values and attitudes and increase in numbers of unprepared youth and their problems.

“These challenges are real and they have a significant impact on the individual’s social, economic, spiritual and career aspirations of our people across all ages,” she said.

“The launching of BBCC is a timely intervention to cater to the needs of the changing times. Having the specific prevention and intervention strategies can empower people to make meaningful choices in their lives,”Chimi Wangmo added.

RENEW’s director of the counseling department, Tshering Dolkar said the BBCC will enhance the empowerment of mental health professionals like counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers in their commitment and development of professionalism while delivering services.

The BBCC will help in providing opportunities to validate and orient all the counselors and para-professionals in Bhutan into the national standards of counseling and mental health and help in standardizing the profession up to international standards, monitor and supervise, facilitate to continuing education, award certificate and license to practice and maintain network of counselors across all sectors nationwide.

Coinciding with the launch, a two Bhutan National Counseling conference was also held with the main objective of creating a platform for counselors to discuss and exchange ideas, upgrade their professional knowledge and develop ethical standards for counseling.

The conference had sessions on counseling and globalization, theories and techniques of family counseling, treating trauma: steps from symptom management to resolution, using a strength-based approach with children and adolescents, the power of listening deeply-the mindful counselor, science of addiction, contemplative Buddhist psychology, child and adolescent counseling, child protection in emergencies, and a counselor education master’s degree experience in United States: East meets West in clinical training.

The workshop was conducted to as counseling an emergent and evolving profession which requires constant and continuous update of education, skills and training.

The BBCC was established with the support and commitment of the NBCC (National Board for Certified Counselors), USA and concerted support from the stakeholders like Royal Civil Service Commission, Gross National Happiness Commission, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor and Human Resources, the Bhutan Narcotics Control Agency, Royal Bhutan Police, National Commission for Women and Children, Youth Development Fund and UNICEF- Bhutan.

The working committee members were Naina Kala, MoE, Dr Damber Nirola,MoH, Karma Nidup, RUB, and Dorji Tshering.

Counselling services were first introduced in schools though the issuance of a Royal Decree in 1996.

Thukten Zangpo/ Thimphu (The Bhutanese) Sept 13,2013

Lending Counselling Weight

Bhutan board for certified counsellors launched, giving a fillip to the profession

Conference: Her Majesty Gyalyum Ashi Sangay Choden Wangchuck launched the Bhutan Board for Certified Counselling (BBCC) service yesterday, which aims to develop the counselling profession to help address increasing mental health issues in the country.

The board would also provide opportunity to validate and orient the counsellors and para-professionals in the country.

“With development we’ve witnessed increasing number of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and rape, drug and substance abuse,” Her Majesty said. “Migration from villages to urban centres also adds to the challenge.”

Her Majesty also said that suicide rates, depression, absenteeism, conflict, economic struggles, crime, hospitalisation and substance abuse were some of the common external signs, where there is a need of counselling help.

The launch, which coincided with the second bi-annual Bhutan national counselling conference, highlighted the requirement of professional and certified counsellors to help the increasing number of people suffering from mental illness, mostly cause due to stress.

President and CEO of the national board for certified counsellors (NBCC) of counselling and globalisation, Thomas Clawson, said that Bhutan is growing faster than many countries in the world, and that growth has both joy and danger.

“With increasing migration and development, families are breaking up family bond, which is the main strength of Bhutanese,” he said. “In most cases, both the parents are office goers, and most children are working or staying away from family and tend to undergo varied stresses.”

Clawson said that, around the world, mental health is not seen as important as physical health, and contributes to a lack of affordable, quality mental health services.  This means that more than 450M people globally live with unmet mental health care needs, as per world health organisation report.

Counselling as a profession started in 1996 through a royal decree to establish a systematic program to address pressing youth issues.

Soon after the education ministry introduced the youth guidance and counselling program, the royal civil service commission introduced a career counselling program.  Counselling extended to mental health issues, with the establishment of (Respect, educate, nurture and empower women) RENEW in 2004.

In 2011, 12 teachers were selected as teacher counsellors and, by the next year, 32 counsellors were posted in high schools and institutes.  All 32 teacher-counsellors are attending the two-day conference.

Tashi Wangchuk, 32, counsellor at Bajo high school, Wangdue, said that, as a school counsellor for three years, he had witnessed change in the behaviour of his students.

“Although some students attend counselling classes voluntarily, some don’t, fearing stigma,” Tashi Wanghuck said. “The counselling practices are moving forward, but the stigma still continues.”

         Lending counselling weight