Mumbai: Mental Health is a priority of everyone, nowadays and Mental Health concerns are impacting productivity and life of all ages. To slack up the increased concerns of medical Students’ Mental Health and for the Enhancement of mental well-being. The State’s Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) is in the process of developing a Standard operating procedure (SOP).
Objectives of SOP:
- To spread awareness about mental health concerns among faculty members of the Medical College.
- To reduce the stress level of Medical students.
Meanwhile, in collaboration with an NGO, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) is planning to assist postgraduate students (resident doctors) in engaging in de-stressing activities. These activities aim to include the development of hobbies that can be pursued after work, contributing to the building of resilience among the students.
Details of the Spoke person’s speech:
Lt General (Retd) Madhuri Kanitkar stated that authorities should actively engage with medical students at various levels to reduce their stress levels. She emphasized the need for implementing measures both at the individual and policy levels. In big cities, residential doctors had to face heavy workloads (high number of patients) and ironically had less manpower which led to high street levels among them.
She also mentioned that trained volunteers from NGOs should counsel, medical students about their own mental health regularly and teach them better coping mechanisms. However, the Details of the programs is still under process. The university has already opened its own mental health mobile application app designed by the center. This app is called MANAS (Mental Health and Normalcy Augmentation System).
Action plans:
- The provisional name for the project is M for M (MUHS for MARD). Currently, this project is in the elementary stage and we plan to launch it as a pilot study for medical students in Mumbai, Pune, and Nashik.
- The state has already launched a tool-free counseling number (14499) for Students from all health science colleges, managed by Pune Institute
- DMER planning to apply SOP for medical students in all health sciences institutes as a measure to decrease the suicide rates of medical students. The official said that they are collaborating with the Maharashtra Institute of Mental Health, Pune, Mariwala Trust and Unicef to come out with the SOP.
Parents‘ steps towards Mental health concern-High numbers of Suicide of mental health students has become alarming concern for parents. On Monday, Parent’s group wrote letter to seek help from the National Medical Commission (NMC) for their intervention. Parents Representative, Sudha Shenoy said that there is a need of proper reforms. The latter talks about working hours during residential doctors and Toxic work culture.
