Mumbai : The appointment of a counselling team including five psychiatrists and two counsellors at Sewri TB hospital is reportedly working towards reducing suicides as there has been a drastic decline in suicide attempts. In the past two years, the hospital has reported only two suicide attempts as compared to one suicide attempt in every three months in the years from 2010-2013, said the hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr Rajendra Nanaware.
The treatment of TB which goes on for two years at a stretch often leaves patients feeling depressed and pessimistic towards life, say doctors. Following which, patients stop their treatment midway and harm themselves after losing all hope of recovery. Further, the society’s mentality and taboo over the disease often leads the family to abandon their patient which leaves a huge mental impact and leads to stress among such patients.
Dr Nanaware explained: “Considering the rise in the suicide attempts, we had appointed a counselling team who from the very beginning counsels the patients and talks to them about their problems. The counsellors’ job is to show them hope and make them feel optimistic that being a TB patient is not the end of the world. With consistent counselling and efforts, we are succeeding and have reported only two suicide attempts each in October 2014 and November 2015.”
Further, under the 12-pointer programme which has been started at the hospital for health-care workers suffering from TB, periodical medical check-up of hospital staff is being conducted, patients are segregated according to their stage of disease, immediate tests are conducted to understand the extremity of the disease, health education, counselling and safety equipments including surgical and N95 masks are provided, special TB leaves and nutrition diet is given and health check-up for family of TB patients in every three months.
