Stress on rehab of crime victims

• Mental illness patients need to take treatment, says SC Judge Justice Deepak Gupta
• Kerala HC Judge Justice D Seshadri Naidu advises doctors to update themselves in medicine field

Tirupati: Stressing the role of psychiatrists, the Supreme Court Judge, Justice Deepak Gupta has underlined that it is the responsibility of every psychiatrist to provide counselling and contribute towards rehabilitation of those women affected by violent crimes in the society. 

Addressing the 51st Annual Conference of Indian Psychiatric Society South Zonal Branch–IPSOCAN 2018 being held here on Saturday, Justice Gupta recalled World Health Organisation’s statement that a person can be called as completely healthy only when he is both physically and mentally fit. 

One should take treatment for mental illness just as they take for physical illness and there need not be any inhibitions in that. 

He said that there is a chance of getting amendments to the new Mental Health Act 2017 based on the questions that arise from time to time. 

It was up to the governments to provide the basic amenities as envisaged by the new Act. 

Kerala High Court Judge Justice D Seshadri Naidu has referred to the relationship between the mental health and Mental Health Act and explained the importance of the said Act in protecting the rights of patients with mental illness. 

He advised the doctors to study the developments and policies that come in the field of medicine from time to time and get updated accordingly.  

The three-day conference began on Friday and will conclude on Sunday. 

About 1,000 delegates from South Zone which consists of five states–Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala have been taking part in the conference for which the theme was “Back to Basics – Challenges to Opportunities (B2B – C2O)”. 

Apart from plenary sessions, several panel discussions, debates, moot court, Blitz presentation, quiz programme, workshop and poster presentations were being held as part of the conference. 

President of Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS) Dr TP Sudhakar, Dr Jagadeesh, Dr Naresh, Dr K Kishore Kumar, Organising Chairman Dr N Nageswara Rao and Secretary Dr B Sivanath took part.