Recently, a 14-year-old student of a residential school dialled 104 Arogyavani, the State-run health helpline with a dedicated counselling centre for mental health, complaining that he could not remember what he studied.
The student was worried that his exams were nearing and although he put his best, his memory was poor. “My parents have high expectations as I am their only child. But I do not know whether I can meet their expectations,” he told the counsellor.
This is not a one-off case. A major chunk of the calls made to the helpline in the last four years are from students with education and exam-related stress and youth who have career issues.
According to an analysis of the 1,15,220 callers that sought counselling through the helpline from April 2013 to March 2017, 63.17% calls in the age group of 15 and below are linked to memory problems, exam fear and exam failure. These issues are the highest in this age group apart from others such as family problems and death in family.
However, the number of calls seeking counselling for depression owing to career issues are the highest (73.09%) — in the age group of 16 to 24. Callers in this age group also reported about family problems, love failure, memory problems, exam fear and exam failure, among other things.
Shalini Rajneesh, Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare), told The Hindu that there is a steady rise in the number of callers in the last four years. From 11,531 callers who sought counselling in 2013-2014, the number has increased to 57,473 in 2016-2017. Every year, the number of calls from students increases from January onwards.
G. Gururaj, Professor and Head , Department of Epidemiology at NIMHANS, said depression among students is being increasingly recognised as a major mental health problem. The burden of depression is found to be on the rise over the years due to greater recognition, awareness and media influence, he said.
Quoting the recent National Mental Health Survey carried out by NIMHANS, Dr. Gururaj said the prevalence of depression is estimated to be 1.5% and students who had suffered from depression any time in the past is estimated at 2.2%. “Depression is more among male students and highest in the age group of 18 to 22 and among those in urban areas (1.7%) than that compared to rural areas (1%),” he said.
Pointing out that nearly one-third of the students with severe depression are likely to have suicidal ideations, Dr. Gururaj attributed this to stress linked to education, career prospects, parental pressures, and interpersonal relationships, among others.
“It is the age of biological and physiological changes and hence there is greater vulnerability and susceptibility. There is also a greater stress to perform as they start moving away from family and trying to establish their identity. When this exceeds their resilience, they develop depressive tendencies,” he explained.
Nuclear families with lack of support systems have increased parents’ expectations on the single child and this has contributed to a greater extent, he said and added that the need of the hour is to talk about depression. “This will help people in sharing their distress,” he added. The theme for World Health Day on April 7 this year is ‘Depression: Let’s Talk’.
531 suicide attempts averted
Talking about depression surely helps as the State-run 104 Arogyavani has stopped 531 callers from attempting suicide in the last four years.
According to an analysis of 531 calls, more than half were aged between 16 and 24. Of the 291 calls from youth, 284 were students.
Among the reasons for attempting suicides, relationship issues topped the list followed by family problems. The analysis showed that “love failure” was the reason for over 50% calls from youth. A staggering 85% of the callers were men.
Indicating that awareness about the helpline is poor in rural areas, just 29 farmers, who suffered crop loss or were under the burden of loans, had sought counselling in the last four years.
Two more helpline centres
Based on the good response to 104 Arogyavani located in Hubballi, the State government will set up two more centres in Bengaluru and Raichur in the next few months.
Health Minister K.R. Ramesh Kumar told The Hindu that the helpline centre in Bengaluru, to be set up in C.V. Raman General Hospital, will be functional in the next two months. “We will subsequently start the third on in Raichur,” he said.
