The Kozhikode-based Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (IMHANS) has launched helpline numbers to offer mental health counselling to those home quarantined or admitted to isolation wards for COVID-19, suspected patients, their family members, and healthcare professionals and police personnel who are engaged in containing the spread of the infection, and the public.
This is in collaboration with the Kerala State Mental Health Programme.
According to IMHANS Director P. Krishnakumar, the facility will be available between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. “There is a team of 26 people to address queries. If they want general information, they will be given the Health Department’s helpline numbers or the district control room numbers. If the caller requires specialised assistance, it will be forwarded to our faculty,” he said.
G. Ragesh, psychiatric social worker in charge of the facility, said the helpline was launched on Thursday and they had received over 20 calls so far from across the State. “A majority of the callers were those in home quarantine. They were anxious about their current health condition. Some of them were wondering if their earlier health problems would have any bearing on their present condition and their future,” he said.
The numbers available between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. are 8848287721 (Akhila Prabhakar), 6238802712 (P.R. Haritha), 9400617732 (Aarcha Gowri), 9747833774 (Nazneen), 9645835758 (Ashik Junaid), 8137901130 (Sheijila), 9746596677 (P.K. Mohamed Farook), 9544244890 (P.V. Aswathi), 8592959697 (Sneha Sebastian), 9495990871 (K.M. Hasna), 8281948946 (Ardra Sara Mathew), and 8921627756 (S. Prijitha). 9496699220 is an additional number available between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Those available between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. are 9072442904 (M.T. Anjana), 9567181538 (Safa Javad), 9496810113 (Hima), 8138012320 (Praneetha), 9847831560 (Amala), 6238996063 (P.T. Arsharani), 9446768602 (M.P. Arunima), 8086959631 (Akhila S. Kumar), 9633808327 (P.R. Arun), 9745454151 (Shifa Rahman), 9544165859 (Jubin P. Jose), 9061964343 (Shintu Sebastian), 9188042307 (Brijula).
