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Journalists’ mental health in focus at Facebook and Fortis’ training session
Journalists and experts spoke about the pressures and associated mental health concerns that come with the high-pressure job
Facebook, in association with Fortis Healthcare, on Saturday organised a training session on the mental health of journalists focusing on ways to manage one’s mental health and help fellow colleagues and friends who may be undergoing mental stress.
The session opened with an address by Ramya Venugopal of Meta’s news media partnership and strategic partner development Trushar Barot.
“Mental Health issues of journalists must be debated and addressed and the media houses should pay attention to the mental stress faced by the media persons at different levels and in odd situations like COVID times. The stress level and indications of depression must be identified and the necessary steps should be taken from sharing and taking medical advice,” the experts said.
Independent journalist Pamposh Raina, the moderator of the session, said the work of a journalist can have a big impact on his or her mental health as they face tight deadlines and remain in a high-pressure environment.
The main session, which lasted for two hours, was conducted by psychiatrist and TEDx speaker Samir Parikh. National Mental Health Programme director at Fortis, Parikh was accompanied by Kamna Chhibber, a trained therapist and at Fortis Healthcare’s Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences head of the department Divya Jain.
