Hyderabad:
With youngsters increasingly unable to cope with the rising pressures
in academics and personal life, the city seems to have become a hub of
counselling and psychiatric centres. Rough estimates suggest that in the
last five years alone, the number of these facilities has doubled, with
Hyderabad currently hosting as many as 150 such centres and clinics.
And flooding them with calls and personal visits are students from across age groups with varying problems and fears. From schoolgoers contemplating suicide after a tiff with parents to teenagers resorting to sleeping pills due to peer pressure, these centres routinely face situations that are both sensitive and complex. Alarmingly, the rate of occurrence of such incidents is rising consistently, admit counsellors.
“There is also a considerable change in the issues bothering students compared to a decade ago. There is so much competition now that they are always under pressure. Be it studies, relationships or their expectations from friends and family, everything is more convoluted today,” said M Uma Shankar, psychiatrist and in-charge professor at Osmania Medical College. She added that this has resulted in a change in treatment being adopted by psychiatrists and counsellors. “There has been a huge change in psychiatric services in the last couple of years. We have now started offering treatment depending on the profile of a student,” she said.
Attempts are also being made to use ‘modern’ technologies to deal with cases involving young people. “On many occasions, we try to befriend the students and follow them on social networking sites. We also keep in touch with them via smartphones. ,” said a senior psychiatrist from the city.
But the job isn’t easy and is not always a success, admit experts. “Once, a student called me and said he wanted to die but I talked him out of it then. I also asked him to visit the centre before he hung up. But when I tried to call him back, he did not respond. I called on the same number after a few days only to reach his brother who told me that the boy had killed himself,” a distraught Usha Kiranmayi, psychologist with ‘Know Yourself ’ clinic, said.
What seems to be irking many counsellors is the lack of cooperation from educational institutes. “We asked several schools and colleges to let us interact with their students and tell them about our services so that they can contact and confide in us. But these institutions are rarely forthcoming and insist that all was good with their students,” said Akheel Siddiqui, director of Roshni Counseling Centre, which gets close to 100 calls every month from students suffering from depression and anxiety. According to him, student suicides can drop significantly only if they become aware about who to approach when in a crisis situatio
And flooding them with calls and personal visits are students from across age groups with varying problems and fears. From schoolgoers contemplating suicide after a tiff with parents to teenagers resorting to sleeping pills due to peer pressure, these centres routinely face situations that are both sensitive and complex. Alarmingly, the rate of occurrence of such incidents is rising consistently, admit counsellors.
“There is also a considerable change in the issues bothering students compared to a decade ago. There is so much competition now that they are always under pressure. Be it studies, relationships or their expectations from friends and family, everything is more convoluted today,” said M Uma Shankar, psychiatrist and in-charge professor at Osmania Medical College. She added that this has resulted in a change in treatment being adopted by psychiatrists and counsellors. “There has been a huge change in psychiatric services in the last couple of years. We have now started offering treatment depending on the profile of a student,” she said.
Attempts are also being made to use ‘modern’ technologies to deal with cases involving young people. “On many occasions, we try to befriend the students and follow them on social networking sites. We also keep in touch with them via smartphones. ,” said a senior psychiatrist from the city.
But the job isn’t easy and is not always a success, admit experts. “Once, a student called me and said he wanted to die but I talked him out of it then. I also asked him to visit the centre before he hung up. But when I tried to call him back, he did not respond. I called on the same number after a few days only to reach his brother who told me that the boy had killed himself,” a distraught Usha Kiranmayi, psychologist with ‘Know Yourself ’ clinic, said.
What seems to be irking many counsellors is the lack of cooperation from educational institutes. “We asked several schools and colleges to let us interact with their students and tell them about our services so that they can contact and confide in us. But these institutions are rarely forthcoming and insist that all was good with their students,” said Akheel Siddiqui, director of Roshni Counseling Centre, which gets close to 100 calls every month from students suffering from depression and anxiety. According to him, student suicides can drop significantly only if they become aware about who to approach when in a crisis situatio
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