NIMHANS consultative meeting on strengthening student mental health support systems in campuses

To co-develop a comprehensive campus-based model for suicide risk reduction and strengthening support systems for mental health, NIMHANS organised a consultative meeting on student mental health on Tuesday. The consultative meeting, held as part of a multi-state National Health Research Priority project initiated by the Indian Council of Medical Research, focussed on engaging youth as active collaborators and agents of change to start conversations on mental health, destigmatise reaching out for help when in distress, engage in supportive interactions with peers in distress and facilitate help seeking through appropriate sources. She emphasized on the need for collaborative efforts, sharing of insights and mutual learning across campuses, reiterating the need for a strengths-based approach as well as measures to enhance mental health support for students in need. Seema Mehrotra, Professor of Clinical Psychology at NIMHANS, who is the lead investigator of this project at NIMHANS, said that the project team involves experts across departments at the premier mental health institution who are supporting the implementation, in collaboration with the State Departments of Education and Health.