Bhopal: After suicide, Student Wellness Centre opens at AIIMS

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): After an MBBS student committed suicide, a Student Wellness Centre (SWC) services has been opened at AIIMS, Bhopal, on Thursday. A 20-year-old MBBS student who belonged to Kerala, had committed suicide in AIIMS, on August 1. Prof Dr Ajai Singh, Executive Director and CEO, AIIMS, Bhopal, inaugurated the wellness centre.

The director said, “Stress has become a part of our life, which is sometimes good but we need to recognise the level at which stress can cause harm to our health and take help of experts to reduce unnecessary mental burden.”

Student Wellness Centre (SWC) at AIIMS, Bhopal is aimed at dealing with any loneliness issues of students enrolled for various courses being run at AIIMS. Students during the course of professional studies like medical or nursing, may develop feelings of anxiety or issues like loss of sleep or appetite in wake of adjustment to the new situation or during examination periods.

SWC provides services like assessment for loneliness issues, necessary counselling and referral for diagnosis and treatment if needed as per case basis. SWC services take special care of confidentiality and anonymity of the information received and persons dealt with. AIIMS Bhopal Department of Psychiatry is the key department with its faculty members and clinical psychologists involved in providing services of SWC.

Prof Vijender Singh, Head of Department of Psychiatry, said, “There is a need of comprehensive health counselling services for medical and nursing students of AIIMS, Bhopal. The Department of Psychiatry is running round-the-clock helpline for students of AIIMS, Bhopal in case of need felt by students even during odd hours.”