SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, April 4: The Counseling Cell of the Ranchi University, in a report addressed to the Registrar has informed the University management of the number of patients helped during the lockdown period between April 29 and May 12.
Notably, the university and the counseling cell, in collaboration, had released helpline numbers during the Covid lockdown to help people with problems and counseling.
As per the report, a total of 212 calls were attended during the 14-day initiative by professionals at the university. The professionals addressing the situations included psychologists, trained counselors and experts present at the cell.
Counseling cell in-charge and Psychology Dept Director Dr M P Hasan said, “The largest number of callers included students that were tensed due to studies and online classes. The second most concerned were people who had lost their family members to Covid, while the third largest concerned strata was that of frontline workers including police officials.”
“Others included research scholars and teachers of the university that were worried about their thesis, PhD and tenure,” added Dr Hasan.
Dr Hasan said, “Meanwhile, the most prominent reasons for counseling among the callers were sleep disturbances, stress due to loss of a family member, depression and suicide ideation, domestic abuse, homesickness in case of students and officials stuck away from family, stress and panic due to the pandemic and deaths around, among others.”
He further added that several other reasons also came to the fore. “These included students stressed due to session delays and study material, police officials faced adjustment issues between family and duty, psychosomatic disorders, smoking addiction, problems in relationships, examination related, emotional stability, physical health for cases where they already had ailments. These and many more issues were raised by callers throughout the two weeks,” said the director.
Further elaborating the reasons he said, “Several students and people expressed feelings of pain, fear, loneliness, suicide ideation, obsession and compulsion, delusions and helplessness regarding education and career. We even received calls from the remand homes where the administration was worried about emotional imbalance and suicidal tendencies among inmates. Some people suffering from high blood pressure, sugar and diabetes were also worried and stayed in contact with the cell.”
Adding to this, the counseling cell in-charge said, “We have added thirteen more young trained counselors to help us with our endeavor. These youngsters have given consent to serve the society through the cell.”
