24x7 mental healthcare helpline in city soon

Gearing up to tackle the city’s growing mental health problems, Mumbai-based psychiatrists have come together to launch a 24-hour mental healthcare helpline, reports HT Correspondent.

Gearing up to tackle the city’s growing mental health problems, Mumbai-based psychiatrists have come together to launch a 24-hour mental healthcare helpline.

HT Image

“For those who live in the city that never sleeps, mental health problems are inevitable,” said Dr Harish Shetty, a senior psychiatrist, who is associated with the Cyrus and Priya Vandrevala Foundation that officially launc-hed the helpline on Friday.

The helpline, which is based out of Powai, will deal with calls dealing with mental health issues in a three-tier system. Clinical psychologists trained in tele-counselling will take primary calls. In case they cannot resolve the issue, the call will be transferred to an experienced psychiatrist.

And as the final step, senior psychiatrists will counsel the people over phone.

“During the pilot phase of the help line we received 18 to 20 calls per day. Queries ranged from senior citizens asking about how to cope with loneliness, housewives asking for help with dealing with issues of joint family and students complaining about stress,” said Dr Arun John, another psychiatrist.