IIT Madras starts wellness session series for students

IIT madras students will be offered mental health counselling services through the 24-hour helpline 14416 and TeleManas 14416. The counsellors and psychologists in IIT will also be offered fellowship courses to strengthen their counselling and psychotherapy skills.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has started a wellness session series for its students. The series is part of a number of initiatives undertaken by the institute to provide every student an environment filled with harmony and peace.  

The program is being conducted with the support of the National Health Mission, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu, for students through talks by professionals involved in enabling mental wellness programmes across the state.  The objective is to increase awareness on mental health and various options available to students to address and mitigate stress whenever it is experienced. 

Shilpa Prabhakar Sathish, Mission Director, National Health Mission, Government of Tamil Nadu, highlighted the mental health programme implemented by the Government of Tamil Nadu and the various mental health activities initiated through the district mental health programme for the mental well-being of school and college students. She also described about the ‘Natpudan Ungalodu-Mananala Seva’ and Tele MANAS programme launched in October 2022. 

Mental Health Tele counselling services (14416) will be offered to IIT students through TeleManas (14416), which is a 24X7 toll-free helpline providing quick mental health counseling services to students in times of distress. The counsellors and psychologists in IIT will also be offered fellowship courses to strengthen their counselling and psychotherapy skills. 

Prof V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, spoke about the various initiatives taken by IIT Madras to combat stress and improve mental well-being to convert IIT Madras campus to a “Be Happy” campus. He shared the launch of a new website https://behappy.iitm.ac.in/ primarily for students’ mental well-being. This provides a time-bound redressal mechanism in addition to encouraging frequent and timely interaction between Faculty Advisors and students. This website also provides other initiatives providing “Listeners Option” wherein the students can reach out for support, Prof Kamakoti said. 

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