Fourteen-year-old Vikas (name changed) had not been performing well at school. His younger sibling did well in academics and he felt he was "worthless" as he could not meet his parents' expectations. A chance remark to his father made the latter realise that the boy had suicidal tendencies.
"When he came to see me, he suffered from low esteem issues and suicidal tendencies. We gave him a space to vent out his feelings and put him on a short course of anti-depressants, in a few weeks his mood had changed remarkably," said Rajini P., the psychiatrist who treated the case.
In Vikas's case, timely intervention saved his life. But, many youngsters struggle to cope with anxiety and depression without knowing whom to approach. With the goal to detect and prevent such problems at an early stage, the Health and Family Welfare Department inaugurated a two-day workshop on Saturday at NIMHANS for mental health programme officers from all districts, psychologists and members of the Education Department on life skills and ways to detect depression and suicidal tendencies among youngsters.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The goal is to sensitise teachers across Karnataka so that when they have a difficult child in class, they would empathise with him/her and try to find out the problems rather than castigating the child and increasing his/her anxieties," said Dr. Rajini, who is Deputy Director for Mental Health Programme, State Department for Health and Family Welfare.
The participants were taught about life skills and ways to detect problems faced by children.