SHILLONG, Oct 10: As has been the norm, World Mental Health Day was observed at SANKER Nursing Home on Monday. The two-year long pandemic has seen a rise in mental health cases leading to suicide. Speaking on the occasion, SANKER Director Dr Sandi Syiem said that suicide is 100 per cent preventable and it is not an act of cowardice.
During the interactive session where students and teachers from several schools were present, Dr Syiem and his team of psychiatrists answered questions sent by students from various institutions. Speaking on suicide which has taken a heavy toll during the pandemic, Dr Syiem said that suicide is a cry for help and it is something which everyone needs to understand.
“It is not taking the easy way out. It is a very difficult act for anyone to even contemplate. Children, young people and the elderly take their own lives because of the intense pain and suffering they are going through. We must understand that even the government had decriminalised suicide in 2017 which means that it has understood that suicide is not a criminal act,” the SANKER Director said.
He observed that anybody who expresses thoughts of dying and taking their own life needs help. Dr Syiem emphasized that for every completed suicide, there are at least 20 to 25 attempts being made.
“We need to prevent suicide. Every person who dies of suicide has given indications or talked about death and the futility of living,” Dr Syiem said.
Stating that one suicide occurs every 40 seconds in the world, Dr Syiem said that more girls under the age of 18 took their own life last year in India than boys of the same age.
He also informed that 60 per cent of the suicide cases last year were those of housewives.
“We are contemplating to adopt one or two schools in our immediate vicinity because the question of mental health problems is coming up so fast and it is extremely difficult for us to handle them on an outpatient basis. Perhaps if we adopt the schools then problems at those schools could be solved at the source,” Dr Syiem.
Earlier, SANKER consultant psychiatrist Dr Eddie Mukhim said that it has been witnessed that students are exposed to substance abuse due to the negative emotions and relationship problems. Earlier Dr Mukhim spoke about the importance of social and emotional intelligence as much as intellectual intelligence.
“As students we will have problems and difficulties in our life. We have to learn to say no to substances. We need to share our feelings and problems with our close friends, parents and even health professionals,” Dr Mukhim said.
Assistant Professor, Consultant (Clinical Psychology), Composite Regional Centre for Skill Development, Rehabilitation & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Shillong (CRC-SHL), Pranami Barua stressed on the importance of coming out of toxic and stressful relationships.
“We can divert our mind by moving to something positive by prioritising our goals which we wanted to achieve in our life,” she said.
SANKER consultant psychiatrist Dr D Khonglah said that students are facing problems of dealing with addiction to social media.
“The addiction to social media among youth has seen an upward trend after the COVID-19 pandemic. All the students need to use the internet to attend online classes and even to do their assignments,” Dr Khonglah said.
According to her, parents are also complaining that their children are spending too much time on the internet, adding that even the youth are acknowledging that they are spending so much time on social media.
“The addiction to social media and the internet becomes a problem when sleep is disturbed leading to other health consequences,” she said.
Dr Khonglah said that the solution to this problem is by fixing a routine and cutting screen time.
“We should try to put our gadgets away before sleeping. These small measures will definitely help,” she added.
As part of commemoration of this day, SANKER held an awareness programme on its campus where students of classes 9 to 10 from different schools of the city mingled and interacted with persons living with mental illness.
Dr Syiem said that this is one way to reduce stigma and discrimination of the mentally ill. On the occasion, eight students were felicitated with certificates and mementos for taking part in the poetry writing competition. One student each from Loreto Convent, BK Bajoria and Seven Set HS School were called to read their self-composed poems befitting the occasion.
