IMHANS Kashmir starts outreach counseling for Covid-19 survivors

As Kashmir is slowly coming out of the grip of Covid-19 pandemic, health authorities have launched a community outreach programme to provide psychiatric counseling for the families who have lost a member to the deadly virus in the past two years.

The facility has been started by Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS), Kashmir, which has become the first medical centre in the country to take such an initiative.

Under the initiative “Kath Bath” (a conversation), the IMHANS has deployed a team consisting of a psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, counsellor and social workers to reach out to the families that are dealing with the trauma of losing loved ones to the pandemic.

“We have a list of all Covid deaths. But we have designed this programme as voluntary so that people avail the service without shame and stigma,” Principal Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, Dr Samia said.

She said the programme will help them to explore hidden morbidity of mental health in high-risk populations and help in mitigating the sufferings.

Kashmir reported 2,423 Covid related deaths in two years while Jammu region lost 2327 in the pandemic. Jammu district witnessed the highest number of deaths – 1,223 - followed by Srinagar - 907 – deaths.

Dr Arshid Hussain, a professor of Psychiatry at GMC Srinagar said Covid-19 undoubtedly left behind a lot of unresolved trauma and grief in a large number of families in Kashmir.

“Several families could not mourn the loss of their loved ones due to the stigma while a lot of sole bread earners in the family lost their jobs and are battling an economic crisis. Some children are still fearful of getting separated from their loved ones,” he told DH.

Dr Hussain said worry is that the cases trickling into hospitals might be the tip of the iceberg. “There are untold numbers, in terms of the devastation that the pandemic caused. There are families that need to be reached out to, talked to,” he said.

The programme will be initiated in Srinagar and gradually expanded to other districts.

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