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The Mental Health Care Crisis In Indian Campuses

Students' Mental Health Issues and Role Of Brain Behaviour Research Foundation of India (BBRFI).

This is a story of Sagar who hails from a Dalit family and was the first person from his family to reach college as well as from his village too, to study at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata. Sagar was only 19 years old, son of a daily wage worker from a village in Nadia district in West Bengal. He got the admission in IISER through a scholarship and he committed suicide on the exam day.
His friends and faculty told that he was anxious and tensed during his first year and he never indulged with his friends for occasional celebrations and always had an excuse that he doesn't want to waste the money.

So, what were the reasons behind the suicide of Sagar ?

Was he really anxious and tensed about his performance ? Was he getting any support from his family, friends or faculty about his mental health issues ? Is there any medical or mental health counselling or support given to him ?
There are lot of questions to answer but here we are going to discuss some of the important reasons behind the suicide of Sagar.

Ignoring mental illness as a cause of suicide - If someone ignores the mental health problem it may lead someone to take extreme steps like suicide ideation or suicide attempt. In the case of Sagar, it was found that he had visited psychological counsellor information provided by the college administration for the problem of depression. Any ignorance or overlooked approach in the case of mental health may results in negative consequences.

The deadly cost of India's campus suicides - The system surrounded Sagar whether his family, friends, faculty or institutions, all were failed to address the personal pressure and problems of Sagar. According to data, provided by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) that in 2015, that 8,934 suicides were committed by students. In the span of five years (2011-2015), there were total of 39.775 suicides committed by students. About 70% of suicide victims in India had an income of less than 1,00,000 rupees per annum.

A combination of rising parental expectations, apathy of college administrators, lack of mental health help and fiercely competitive academic culture is pushing students across the country into a pool of despair, dejection, hopelessness, anxiety and pressure to perform outstanding in academia. Every suicide is ultimately a spur of the moment. It also includes various factors such as economics, caste, gender, sexuality, academic performance, relationship problems and many more.

Excel or fall behind - The clock of pressure starts ticking when a student reaches in 11th standard where a student have to opt for the future stream i.e. Science, Commerce or Humanities. According to the general opinion, there is a tendency among Indian families, parents and elders decide the stream to choose for the students. It may be choice based or force based, but a student have to study and there is no consent asked or taken from students by their parents.
The unhappiness of not being able to pursue their own interests is among a number of issues students have to cope within their college lives. The sudden changes in lifestyle and have to live away from home and look after themselves causes separation and anxiety among both students and teachers.

The change in the lifestyle which happens at the same time as physical, sexual and psychological changes in the body, means that this period is a particularly vulnerable time for person's mental health.

Lack of student counselling centres - At present scenario, dedicated student counselling centre are now a norm in premier governmental institutes like IITs, IIMs such centres with residential psychologists who can help students in coping with mental health poblems.
But earlier these type of centres were almost absent or very less in numbers to address students' problems and students have no mechanism to fight out mental health problems and they were not comfortable to share their problems.

Mushrooming of student support network - India is facing a mounting number of campus suicides in the midst of an acute shortage of mental health professionals in the country. According to a reply by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the Lok Sabha in 2015, there are 3800 psychiatrists, 898 clinical psychologists, 850 psychiatric social workers and 1500 psychiatric nurses nation wide. It means that only one psychiatrist available for every 2,00,000-3,00,000 persons.
Students with diagnosed mental illnesses and students with sub-clinical problems will both benefit from having a resident psychologist on campus. Not all students with mental illness are at risk of suicide, but it is better if institutes do away with the mentorship system in favour of a psychologist. There is a big difference between mentoring and counselling, counsellors step in when students are emotionally affected.

A long way to ideal - Many students, however, still are unaware of serious mental illnesses and their consequences but though they know buzzwords like anxiety and depression. Anxiety, depression and other psychological disorders are not viewed as illnesses but either taking it lightly as an essential phase of life and it will pass as the time goes. Only very few of them took it as a serious concern and think to visit psychologist or psychiatrist for further treatment.
Mostly students and teachers alike tend to underestimate the mental health concerns and deny the pain caused by it.

Role of BBRFI and its similar organizations - Institutions like BBRFI  and others are playing an important role, not only in curing and treating the mental health disorders but also providing a certain path to lead a good life on the basis of various techniques. BBRFI is providing full proof career counselling before the actual problem occurs.
BBRFI is providing various ways to live and lead a life with positive mental health through the supervision and deep guidance of Dr. Alok Kumar Mishra and his dedicated and experience team is always ready to help anyone in the perfect grooming of an individual to achieve their goals with minimum hiccups.

BBRFI is working for the society with the mission and motto of enhancing the potential of any individual, to make individuals aware of their in born talents, to provide counselling for social, occupational, academic, relational difficulties and to improve the personality, self-esteem, confidence level, to increase and identify the individual's positive and complete development.

Source : 
www.thenewsminute.com

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