Stress on preventive steps to help stop suicides

16-Jun-2014

BANGALORE : The spate of suicides in the city, including the 10 reported over Friday and Saturday, is a cause of concern. Medical and psychological experts have underlined the need for educational institutions and workplaces to take preventive measures to stop people from committing suicide.

According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), as against every reported case of suicide, there are at least 10 attempt to commit suicide cases. And, the number of those contemplating suicide is not known.

NIMHANS has, in its study report, termed suicide as a public health issue. The report underlines the need for recognising those with suicidal tendencies the symptoms of which include loss of interest in work or studies, disturbed sleep, and increased inclination to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol.

Rani Shetty, counsellor at Parihar that runs the helplines at the Police Commissioner’s office, underlined the need to identify why any person has suicidal tendency. “As there are multiple causes of suicides, chalking out one single measure for prevention of suicides is not the solution,” she said. She also said that there was a need for all educational institutes and workplaces to have a full-time counsellor to address the issue.

According to Ms. Rani Shetty, there is a rise in the number of adolescents showing suicidal tendencies. “Many adolescents call the helpline and express their desire to commit suicide over trivial issues,” she added.

According to the Police, 2,033 unnatural deaths were reported in 2013. The number of suicides among these cases is yet to be tallied. As per statistics provided by the National Crime Records Bureau, 1,989 suicide cases were reported in Bangalore in 2012. Also, Bangalore accounted for 10 per cent of the 19,120 suicides reported in 88 cities during the year. This is a 15.8 per cent increase compared to 2011 when the number of suicides stood at 1,717.

The highest number of suicides in 2012 was reported in Chennai (2,183). The four metro cities — Chennai, Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai — contribute to about 35 per cent of the number of suicides reported in 88 cities.

Additional Commissioner (Crime) Pronab Mohanty said that it is difficult to attribute the 10 suicides reported over two days to any one reason.

“The incidence of 10 suicides over Friday and Saturday could be just a coincidence and no pattern can be determined when we look at the profiles of the dead persons,” he said.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/stress-on-preventive-steps-to-help-stop-suicides/article6117246.ece

Woman locks kids in house, suspects husband conniving to harm them

4-May-2014

Gagandeep Singh Dhillon

Summary : The woman is suffering from psychiatric disorder and needs treatment: Doctors.

CHANDIGARH : A woman suspected to be mentally ill has locked her college-going daughter and school-going son in their house in Manimajra over a month, due to ‘delusions’ about her husband conniving with neighbours to harm them, according to doctors at the Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32.

Psychiatrists said that the two have been locked in the house by the ‘well-built’ and ‘violent’ 43-year-old mother due to which the daughter missed her annual Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) examinations, while the 15-year-old son could not enrol himself in the school for the new session (names of family withheld).

Her husband, an ex-serviceman, approached the crisis intervention team of the Psychiatry Department a month ago and said that his wife, who has a history of mental illness, had been refusing to open the door of their house and was getting “verbally and physically abusive”. In fact, she tried to cut the electric wire of their tenant with scissors out of aggressiveness, he said.

The father got worried about their safety and requested the team to get her treated. “Since, she was highly violent, the team approached her house with the help of the local police. However, she got angry and claimed that she is mentally fit as she can recall everything and has no symptoms of any disorder. However, assessment of her behaviour led us to believe that she is suffering from psychiatric disorder and needs treatment,” said an official of the crisis intervention team.

The psychiatrist added, “The woman had a quarrel with a neighbour a few years ago. Now, she suspects that her husband is into an extra-marital relationship with the neighbour and both of them are planning to harm her children. It is this delusion due to which she has turned extremely protective and even violent.”

The team said that although some of the residents of the area are supporting her as they believe she is behaving normally, her immediate neighbours and family members have seen her hurling bricks down the pavement and using abusive language without a provocation. “Her well-wishers are extremely concerned about her children, who are not being allowed to see the light of day. In fact, we took help from the SSP and approached the patient again recently. But a mob of residents gathered at the spot and we had to retreat,” said officials.

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/woman-locks-kids-in-house-suspects-husband-conniving-to-harm-them/

IIT reach-out for peace of mind

21-Apr-2014

KOLKATA: IIT-Kharagpur, the country’s oldest and biggest IIT, is on top of a very dubious list that’s being pursued by the HRD ministry. With 22 suicides in the past six years, the mental health of students on this campus is a cause of concern for the ministry and though it is in a limbo at the moment because of the ensuing elections, the institute has been advised by officials in Delhi to devise ways in which student interaction could be maximized so that aberrations can be easily be identified.

A slew of changes have been rung in by the campus authorities. Students are excited and they say that this is the first time that they are actually being told by the faculty and other senior members of the administration that there is more to life than just grades. On an average, a student spends at least 16 hours in a day studying or completing projects. The rest of the time is divided between social networking sites, sleep and food.

The programme has been christened “Reach Out” and each is designed to bring students out of their hostels for at least an hour every day for informal interaction. Lights are being turned off and LAN connections cut off at the hostels at the appointed hour so that students are forced to come out on the greens and do nothing but laugh, joke and chat. “It was such a relief, we were actually sitting here and there and chatting in real and not virtual terms,” said Atal Ashutosh, a second-year student of mining engineering.

The last two suicides on the campus in March has left it rattled. Both students chose to end their lives despite being good students. Facts like they seemed cut off and depressed started tumbling out after they were gone and beyond help.

“It is sad that someone is so depressed next door that he takes his life while the boys next door are out celebrating Holi downstairs. Obviously he must have showed palpable signs for days together but no one had the time or the urge to notice that. IIT Kgp was never like this and we needed to do something urgently to identify crisis cases,” said P P Chakraborty, the director of the institute.

Night tug-of-war, hopscotch, kabaddi, pittoo, kho-kho and other indigenous matches are being played to involve everyone. Absentees, if any, are being met and encouraged to join.

“We have coined a slogan – ‘We are keeping our flames alive’ and are sending each other these messages. Each one of us is on the look out for a chance loner who might be avoiding such activities. These will immediately be reported,” said Pravin Kaushal, a fifth-year student.

Third-year student Ravish Raja said he has already made a huge gang of friends through the reach-out programme.

Special assignments are also being charted out for faculty members so that they visit hostels, have dinner with the boys and spend hours interacting with them.

Many felt that the rising numbers at the campus has put the faculty under so much pressure that they have become somewhat alienated from students.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/IIT-reach-out-for-peace-of-mind/articleshow/34016464.cms

School mental health scheme in all Kerala districts

15-April-2014

‘Thalir’ was launched in capital district three years ago

C. MAYA

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The Health Department has decided to scale up the School Mental Health Programme, currently implemented in Thiruvananthapuram, to all districts from this academic year.

‘Thalir,’ the school mental health project being implemented as part of the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) in Thiruvananthapuram for the past three years, has been chosen as the model for replication across the State. The training of personnel to lead the programme in other districts is expected to start this month itself.

The programme is being scaled up across the State utilising a part of the funds — Rs.20 crore — allocated to Kerala by the Union Ministry of Health for the implementation of a Comprehensive Mental Health Programme in the State under the 12th Plan. Each district will be allocated Rs.39 lakh for implementing Thalir, while the rest is to be utilised for mental health rehabilitation projects in districts.

‘Thalir’ is one of the successful targeted intervention programmes launched by the DMHP in the district. It has covered over 22,000 students in 112 schools. The programme aims at the holistic development of schoolchildren by making them aware of the importance of mental health along with physical well-being, offering them counselling, and addressing behavioural issues.

The programme works in coordination with the Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health programme and the School Health Programme being implemented in schools by the National Rural Health Mission.

Acting as a link
“We train school counsellors and School Junior Public Health Nurses to be the link between students and teachers and the DMHP unit. Thalir is implemented as a total package for teachers, parents and students,” says P.S. Kiran, nodal officer for DMHP.

Counsellors and teachers receive training from the panel of resource persons of the DMHP on how to identify problems among children and how to respond to these as part of the programme. School counsellors receive continuous training inputs from DMHP team.

Focus areas
‘Thalir’ focusses on addressing behaviour and emotional issues among children, helping them stay away from substance abuse, suicide prevention, stress management, life-skills education, and also managing childhood problems like learning disability and conduct disorder. Students are encouraged to seek help from school counsellors.

As part of scaling up the programme across State, counselling centres will be opened in 1,926 schools this year.

Private schools have not been excluded from the programme, though government schools will have the priority.

K.O. Ratnakaran, Principal of Navodaya Vidyalaya, Vithura, points out that most parents are aware of the psychological stressors that children are up against. Demand for regular school-based counselling has been coming from parents themselves.

“As teachers, we are trained to recognise issues that children may have but as part of Thalir, all of us were given a new perspective into the way children react psychologically to problems. The issues of today’s children certainly require a more sensitive handling,” Dr. Ratnakaran says.

“In the initial year, we had a lot of trouble persuading schools to take up the programme. In the second year, though more schools were willing to try it out, they were not keen on involving teachers and parents. But we do not offer ‘Thalir’ to schools if the teachers or PTAs are not willing to be part of the programme, because parents and teachers play a crucial role in moulding a child’s personality and attitude,” says Dr. Kiran.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/school-mental-health-scheme-in-all-kerala-districts/article5913077.ece

Thrust on a beautiful mind

Debut of memorial lecture at Ranchi University

Manas K Mandal at the lecture in Ranchi

RANCHI : Loads of talks on mind, health and social issues like the gender divide and some smart tips to survive against all odds marked the inaugural session of the Geeta Chakravarty Memorial Lecture at Ranchi University on Friday.

The students, who comprised majority of the audience at Central Library’s auditorium, got the opportunity of listening to learned persons like Manas K. Mandal, an outstanding scientist; S. Haque Nizamie, director of Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Ranchi; and Binay Chaudhary, former professor of Magadh University, Bodhgaya.

Geeta Chakravarty was the former head of the psychological department of Ranchi University. After her death in 2011, her husband Amal Chakravarty (also a retired chemistry professor) and sons, Ujjwal and Sajal, decided to institute a memorial lecture in her name and a gold medal for the topper of the department.

Ranchi University vice chancellor L.N. Bhagat inaugurated the lectures, the first of the series, on Friday.

Manas K. Mandal, who is the director of Defence Institute of Psychological Research, New Delhi, delivered the lecture on “Protecting beautiful minds”. “Conflict of morality and loyalty often torments young minds. Morality prompts one to argue and that may come in the way of success whereas loyalty helps build a career more easily. That is why one is required to take a decision and resolve the conflict. Again, failure is a common feature in life. One has to tackle failures,” he said.

S. Haque Nizamie delivered the next lecture on “Mental Health Issues in India”. The CIP director said mental health was often related to psychiatric disorders only while happiness was also a state of mental health.“Despite considerable rise in cases of mental diseases in recent times that even lead to suicides, people don’t prefer seeking medical help out of fear for stigma, prejudice and exclusion. The society lacks awareness,” Nizamie rued.

Speaking about latest advancements in neuro-sciences, he said pursuing a career in clinical psychology would be a good option.

The last lecture was reserved for Binay Chaudhary, who spoke on gender-based violence. “Ours is a country of contradictions. While the scriptures teach us to respect women, they are the most disrespected in reality. Often known persons or even near ones are offenders in gender-based violence,” he pointed out.

According to Chaudhary, economic independence helps a woman achieve self-respect. “Be independent economically, learn self-defence techniques and never compromise with self-respect,” he advised the girls.

The students felt enlightened.

“We read about many of the topics as passing references but did not know about them in details. The lectures were very helpful,” a student said.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130112/jsp/jharkhand/story_16430267.jsp

 

 

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