IGNOU holds a Two-dayprogramme on World Mental Health Day MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS
15 October, 2019 Media Release
IGNOU celebrated the World Mental Health Day on 10th of October 2019 by organizing a two-day programme “Mental Health Matters”. The Discipline of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, IGNOU organized this programme on 10th and 11th October alongwith the Sports and Cultural Committee and National Centre for Disability Studies (NCDS), IGNOU. The World Mental Health Day is celebrated every year world-wide on 10th of October. The theme of the Day this year is “Suicide Prevention” as given by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Prof RashmiSinha, Director, School of Social Sciences in her welcome address stated that IGNOU as a premier University, has a social responsibility towards this cause and accordingly various activities are planned on this very important topic of mental health to spread awareness among the IGNOU fraternity including the learners.
Prof. Swati Patra, Faculty, Discipline of Psychology, while giving details of the activities of the day’s function informed that the programme would help in creating awareness about mental health as ‘there is no health without mental health’. Mental health goes beyond the absence of mental illness and focuses on the well-being.
In her Key Note Address on the topic “Suicide: The Dynamics and its Prevention”, Dr. Jayanti Dutta, eminent Clinical Psychologist and renowned speaker stressed on the awareness, dynamics and prevention of suicide. She said we first need to create awareness,followed by social acceptance that the problem exists and lastlycomes the action to tackle it. She also highlighted the fact that because of lack of awareness lot of these cases, go unreported. She urged everyone to be aware that there could be people around us with mental health problems and that needs to be treated as any other health problem.
Prof. R.K. Kanhere, PVC IGNOU in his address said that we tend to ignore the mental health problems.If we confront them,talk it out and share with people around us, solution can be found. He also urged everyone to change their mindset and follow the principle of working hard without worrying about the results since the result is not in one’s hands.
Prof. Parmod Kumar, Chairperson, Sports and Cultural Committee in his speech talked about the need to have more of these programmes with involvement of different schools to not only create awareness but also discuss about prevention. He said that he would be more than willing to contribute in any capacity for the cause.
The deliberations were followed by a Short Skit ‘SaathiHaathBadhana’ (Let’s talk and support each other) on mental health awareness. The programme ended with prize distribution to the winners of Slogan Competition on the theme ‘Suicide Prevention’ in Hindi and English language.
Prof. Hemlata, Director I/c, NCDS proposed vote of thanks and thanked the Chief Guest, Dr. JayantiDutta for her very insightful thoughts on a very sensitive but mostly ignored issues of mental health.
Panel Discussionon Mental Health and Well-being in Children and Adolescents was also held on Gyan Darshan, IGNOU TV Channel, which was telecasted live. The panelists were Dr. Rushi, Associate Professor, Dept of Clinical Psychology, RML Hospital, New Delhi; Dr. SujataSatapathy, Additional Professor, Dept of Clinical Psychology, AIIMS, New Delhi; BK Silpa, Rajyoga Meditation Expert, Brahma Kumaris, New Delhi; and Prof. Swati Patra, Professor of Psychology, IGNOU, New Delhi.
The two-day event concluded on 11th October with another interactive discussion on “Challenges related to Mental Health at the Grass roots level”.The invitees were Dr. SujataMinhas, General Secretary of Mental Health Foundation India, New Delhi; MalakshmiRajagopal from Sahayam, New Delhi; Satish Kumar Kaushik from Rajbala Foundation, Gurgaon; and Dr. Amrita Sahay, Assistant Professor in Rehabilitation Psychology at National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities , Regional Center (NIEPID, RC),Noida.
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