News

CERGE-EI Supports Wellbeing of Students, Faculty, and Staff

21 January, 2021

CERGE-EI understands that the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting our lives in many different ways and it is normal for it to have an impact on our health.

In the context of social distancing and the inability for many students to visit their home countries, hardships for many students arise. CERGE-EI has thus decided to pay special attention to the mental well-being of its students, faculty, and staff. It has hired a counseling service to help members of the CERGE-EI community develop and fulfill their personal, academic and professional potential.

“Trained counselors of the chosen counseling service had previously provided support to the UPCES students, and we were very content with them,” CERGE-EI Director Sergey Slobodyan commented on the decision behind the chosen counseling service provider.

Counseling offers an opportunity to consider issues that concern an individual, in confidence. This therapeutic approach aims to help individuals take responsibility for their own decisions, become more aware of their personal resources, and more skilled at coping with difficulties. It can help to develop insight, self-agency and resilience in order to effect change.

Two online introductory sessions took place on 13 January 2021, providing information to students, faculty and staff on various aspects of mental health and mental hygiene as well as the ways in which the therapists can provide individual support. The counseling practice provides round-the-clock call support and pre-arranged counseling sessions in a variety of languages for individual CERGE-EI members, whose identities will of course stay anonymous. The expenses will be covered by CERGE-EI.