Mental well-being of children crucial for shaping positive, healthy society: Minister Sakeena Masood

Srinagar, Nov 13: Minister for Health and Medical Education, Social Welfare and Education, Sakeena Masood today inaugurated a day-long Conference on Child Mental Health and Psychosocial Support at Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) here.

Secretary Health and Medical Education, Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, Head Child Guidance and Wellbeing Centre (CGWC)-IMHANS, Special Child Protectionist, UNICEF, Administrator Associated Hospitals Srinagar, Medical Superintendent, SMHS Hospital, Heads of different specialities, students and large number of researchers from across the country were also present on the occasion.

In her inaugural address, the Minister remarked that this issue is very crucial as children are a very important part of our society.

“Children are the future of our nation and their mental well-being is crucial for shaping a positive and healthy society”, Sakeena said.  “A recent study disclosed that one out of five children are affected by anxiety and depression. We need to address these issues not only through healthcare and therapy but by fostering environments that encourage emotional growth as well as interventions from institutional levels to help children develop resilience and cope with adversity.”

The Minister also outlined the significance of collaboration between governmental bodies, educational institutions and mental health organizations to create robust frameworks for child mental health services across J&K. “This issue is very critical for our society and from teachers, doctors, paramedics, NGOs and government departments, everybody has a role to play to deal with this issue”, Sakeena said.

She maintained that our government is committed to upgrading the healthcare system from the remotest of areas so that people get advanced medical care facilities near their homes.

Addressing the gathering, Secretary of Health and Medical Education, Syed Abid Rasheed said that the purpose and intent of this conference is very big as we are writing about the future of our children affected by mental health issues. He added that all the departments need to work in tandem in order to deal with such issues.

He called upon the organisers to create awareness about mental health issues across the length and breadth of J&K and involve the necessary stakeholders in it so that children are made resilient about the failures from an early age.

Rasheed highlighted that the deliberations of this conference should turn into some actionable points so that our department can put in the required policy interventions to deal with this critical issue.

Addressing the gathering, Head CGWC, IMHANS, Dr Zaid Wani gave a detailed presentation on the operations of the centre. He outlined the awareness programmes organised by the IMHANS to deal with this pressing issue.

Special Child Protectionist, UNICEF, Vijay Lakshmi Arora and HoD, IMHANS, Dr Muhammad Maqbool also spoke on the occasion.

The daylong conference features a series of panel discussions and presentations on various topics like community rehabilitation of substance-related disorders, integrating child mental health in the education system and other curricula, and building community-based mental health support networks as well as POCSO and Child mental health.