The Counseling Cell and Student Welfare Cell organised an awareness session on TeleMANAS services on 23rd February 2024 at 11.30am. The Resource Persons for the session were Dr. Sneha Pokle, Consultant Psychiatrist and Ms. Meghna Jadhav, Clinical Psychologist from the State TeleMANAS Cell, Goa.
TeleMANAS is a component of the National Mental Health Programme started by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Ms. Safaa Sayad from SY B.Com commenced the session by providing a brief introduction of TeleMANAS Services. The session aimed at creating awareness of Tele services provided by TeleMANAS and reducing the stigma associated with mental health.
Dr. Sneha began the session by showing a video on emotions and discussed the importance of being aware of one’s emotions. She then interacted with students and asked students to name a few mental health issues students face. The causes of mental health issues, such as parental or peer pressure, addiction, traumatic event and emotional dysregulation were explained to students. Dr. Sneha explained the importance of using the right mental health terms to explain a mental health condition. The relationship between addiction and the brain was discussed. An explanation of the brain reward circuit, different types of addiction and increased activity of dopamine neurotransmitters was provided to students.
Ms. Meghna Jadhav informed students about the availability and accessibility of TeleMANAS services. It aims to provide free tele-mental health services all over the country 24/7. They could be contacted through a toll-free number: 14416. The programme includes a network of tele-mental health centres spread across the States and UTs, providing mental health services in over 20 languages and trained counsellors running the first-line services. The service is free and available for all Indian citizens. A demo call was made to tele services to provide practical experience to students.
The session concluded with a Q&A segment and a Vote of Thanks proposed by Mr. Erville Rodrigues, student of the BBA programme. 38 students attended the session.
