Live
- Drone technology for crime control
- Do you support caste census? Which one will you prefer caste census or skill census?
- DSS to launch gender campaign today
- MJCET holds first-ever 24-hr datathon
- TDP, JSP, YSRCP urged to oppose Wakf Bill
- T-SAT to launch new programme on ‘General Studies’
- Cops silence deafening noise of 100 bikes
- Guv inaugurates medical screening camp for Raj Bhavan staff
- Job fair for pharmacist roles tomorrow
- New ration cards to be issued in January
A step towards helping youth beat depression
The increasing incidence of suicides, especially by students, which attracting attention of policy makers to find solutions, has also moved the authorities of KU SDLCE to lend their part to address it. It may be noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio broadcast on March 27, this year urged Indians to talk about depression and seek help when required to prevent suicides
Warangal: The increasing incidence of suicides, especially by students, which attracting attention of policy makers to find solutions, has also moved the authorities of KU SDLCE to lend their part to address it. It may be noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio broadcast on March 27, this year urged Indians to talk about depression and seek help when required to prevent suicides.
Drawing cue from the PM’s concern, Kakatiya University’s School of Distance Learning and Continuing Education (SDLCE) is going to have a psychiatric clinic-cum-counselling centre to help persons suffering from psychological problems. The centre will be established under the school’s department of psychology. Arrangements for setting up the psychiatric clinic are underway, and it will be ready within next couple of months, informed the SDLCE Director Ch Dinesh Kumar.
Speaking to The Hans India here on Wednesday, he said that efforts are being made to procure advanced psychotherapy equipment with the help of experts in the field at Hyderabad Central University. Explaining the importance of setting up the psychiatric clinic, he said ‘The modern life style has become more and more mechanical and stressful. It, often, is compelling vulnerable persons to suffer from mental disorders such as stress and depression and to end their lives following an impulsive decision’.
According to various reports about 8,00,000 people commit suicide worldwide every year and of them 17 per cent (about 1,35,000) are Indians. Every hour, one student is said to be committing suicide in India, wherein youth aged 15 to 29 years are more susceptible according to data available with National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). ‘In fact, there is no age restriction. Suicides are becoming increasingly common. We often come across the news of aged farmers committing suicide and high school students committing suicides for petty reasons, though sometimes academic pressure slated to be a reason,’ Prof Dinesh Kumar
explained.
The country is facing 87 per cent shortage of mental-health professionals. That is why the SDLCE has started MA (psychology) course which aimed to address the dearth of the professionals. The SDLCE has an intake of 120 students into MA (psychology) course annually. It is planned to divide the final year students into groups which will adopt villages to conduct awareness campaigns helping rural folks to quit suicidal tendencies.
The services of students of the SDLCE, trained counsellors and psychologists who visit us every year will be used to assist vulnerable students. They will try to arrest emotional and mental problems at their onset so that they do not spiral into full-fledged clinical depression leading to suicide, the SDLCE director said.
“We will also be submitting reports to the government with suggestions to address the problem. In Warangal there is no specialised psychiatric clinic. We wish centre at SDLCE, where the services will be offered free of cost, may serve to bring down the suicides,” he hoped.
