The Department of Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing (FoN) University of Indonesia held a community service activity to reduce the risk of mental health disorders in school-age children at SDN Tegallega 1, Bogor City, Wednesday (14/12).

Head of the FoN UI Mental Health Nursing Department Yossie Susanti said the activity was carried out to strengthen the psychosocial development of elementary school children as future generations.

She explained that attention to mental health issues continues to increase. People are increasingly aware of the importance of mental health stability. Based on Basic Health Research data (Ministry of Health RI, 2018) places West Java as one of the three provinces with the highest prevalence of mental disorders and mental emotional disorders with a prevalence of 6% in 2013 increasing to 9.8% in 2018.

Furthermore, according to data from the Bogor City Health Office, the number of people with psychiatric problems in Bogor City continues to increase. He said this matter needed serious attention in the midst of the Government’s efforts to realize the demographic bonus and the vision of Healthy Indonesia 2045.

Yossie stated that continued support for mental health promotion activities, especially for school-aged children, was an effort to reduce the increasing prevalence of mental-emotional disorders, especially due to the pandemic. covid19.

The head of the community service committee, Yudi Ariesta Chandra, explained that the theme of the activity was “Children of a Tough Nation, Indonesia is Greater”. Mental health promotion activities for school children are carried out using the Therapeutic Group Therapy (TKT) method with fun games for school-age children.

“We wrap TKT stimulation activities into various games that hone the emotional, cognitive, fine motor and gross motor development of school children, such as lego games, box jumping, competitions to fill ball baskets by painting lines, and so on,” said Chandra.

Meanwhile, the Head of SDN Tegallega 1 Bogor Iroh Rosidah appreciated the community service activities carried out by FIK UI. Rosidah hopes that this kind of activity will be carried out more intensively in an effort to reduce the risk of mental health in the city of Bogor.

“This activity is very useful in strengthening the psychological development of our students,” he said