BGS Hospital launches wellness programmes to support employees' and patients' mental health

Bengaluru: To mark world mental health day, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital launched a series of initiatives as part of their efforts to protect and enhance mental wellbeing of their employees, patients, and their caregivers. The inauguration of the Lifestyle Management Clinic and Heartfulness Program alongside the launch of the book 'Think Right' were some of the initiatives announced at a press conference held at the hospitals Kengeri unit.

The several programs were rolled out in the presence of Biju Nair, Cluster COO, Gleneagles Global Hospital Bengaluru; Dr C R Chandrashekar, Senior Psychiatrist, Retired Professor from NIMHANS, Lead Community Mental Health Clinician; Dr Raghu K, Chief Psychiatrist and Consultant - Life Style Management, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital Bengaluru; Madhusudhan K, Shri Ram Chandra Mission/ Heartfulness Meditation, Karnataka and Sumalatha Vasudeva, Psychologist, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital Bengaluru.

On this occasion Biju Nair, Cluster COO said," As we continue to experience the short- and long-term pressures created by the pandemic, our efforts are continually directed towards building programs that uplift and support both our employees and patients providing them access to the right care and resources to manage both physical and mental illness. We are happy to partner with Heartfulness Meditation Center to bring the Heartfulness program to our doctors, staff, patients, and caregivers which involves various techniques including meditation, rejuvenation, prayer, and relaxation helping people enhance the quality of life."

Underlining the importance of the lifestyle management and heartfulness program, Dr. Raghu K, Consultant -Lifestyle Management at BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital added, "There has been an enormous increase in lifestyle disorders across the board both in terms of the population and the age of the people involved. The launch of the lifestyle management clinic is to address this issue of society at large and specifically of the patient group. It has been seen across all specialties that most of the patients have lifestyle issues which at present are going unaddressed. This clinic hopes to address this need from a holistic approach but based on modern evidence-based medicine. Additionally, most people are facing one kind of stress or another. The collaboration with the heartfulness meditation program would help us to offer these services in-house within the hospital premises, all under one roof, so that patients or their carers don't have to go elsewhere to seek these services."

While trying to tackle the huge burden of mental health problems and lack of resources to address the same, as part of the holistic approach, the government has increased the availability of seats for training in the mental health field resulting in drop of shortage of available resources.

"As more awareness about the treatability of mental health issues grows, there will be more requirements for mental health professionals. At a private level we need to make sure that every hospital has a psychologist and psychiatrist on board to help cater to the needs of these patients," added Dr. Raghu K

Speaking on the book launch of 'Think Right', author and psychologist at BGS Gleneagles Global Hospitals, Sumalatha Vasudeva added, "Mental health is being ignored in society. It was overlooked, something that was at the end of our checklist or rather never made it to the list at all. But today things are slowly changing, and it is changing for the good. An individual might have a healthy body but an unhealthy mind, while some may have a sound mind but an unhealthy body. Striking a balance between the two is what decides if one is truly healthy. Nothing is more important than your own self and hence we shouldn't compromise on making mental health our priority."