Tag: Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India

Business World

Up to 15% people suffering from depression have suicidal tendency, a psychiatric emergency: Mental health experts

Feb 5, 2021 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #ASSOCHAM, #Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India

New Delhi: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), one of the apex trade associations of the country successfully organized another edition of the webinar series on ‘Illness to Wellness’ campaign, themed around “Depression Management and Treatment”.

The ASSOCHAM webinar was organized with an objective to cascade mass awareness and disseminate knowledge & wisdom to combat depression and promote healthier and happier life during current scenario.

The online event was graced by a team of eminent mental health experts who shared their valuable inputs on Depression management, which included – Prof. P K Dalal, President-Indian Psychiatric Society and Former Professor & Head Department of Psychiatry KGMU, Lucknow; Dr Ishita Mukerji, Program Director and Senior Psychologist, Kaleidoscope; Dr Akshay Kumar, Associate Consultant, Mental Health and Behavioural Science, Artemis Hospital, and Dr Rajesh Kesari, Founder and Director, Total Care Control who served as a moderator for the panel. The campaign running under a CSR initiative supported by SAVLON, aims at promoting healthy living with a keen focus on wellness and preventive health through healthy habits, diet, exercise, and holistic health.

Sharing his perspective, Prof Dalal said, “Depression is one of the most common mental disorders. It occurs across all the age groups and is twice as common in females as compared to males. It is treatable and the treatment should be started as early as possible. It can also occur quite commonly with other chronic physical and mental disorders as well. If left untreated it can be severe in intensity and can lead to even suicidal tendency, a psychiatric emergency.”

He said around 10 to 15 percent of people suffering with depression can commit suicide and around 20 percent more can attempt for suicide. The person should be immediately hospitalised and treated. There are now good medicines and other therapies available for the treatment of depression.

Prof Dalal added, “Medicines to treat depression are neither habit-forming nor sedating in nature. The treatment can be easily tapered off after the person remains fully asymptomatic for a considerable period.”

The key to get to the core of the issue is by addressing and communicating in a safe space. “The continuing stigma associated with mental illness was the reason why we decided to come out and talk openly about it”, said Dr Mukerji.

“For someone living with depression, acknowledging their emotions and talking to a person they trust is often the first step towards treatment and recovery,” he said.

“A better understanding of depression and how it can be treated, while essential, is just the beginning. What needs to follow is sustained scale-up of mental health services accessible to everyone, even the most remote populations in the world,” said Dr Mukerji, Senior Psychologist-Kaleidoscope, as she concluded her address.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), depression is one of the leading causes of disability. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds. People with severe mental health conditions die prematurely as much as two decades early due to preventable physical conditions. These facts are a waking reality for all countries to re-think their approaches to mental health and to treat it with the urgency that it deserves.

The expert panel in coherence expressed that Depression is bio-psycho-social in nature, because of which a strong link between developing depressive symptoms & chronic illnesses can be established. Amidst the many important inputs during the webinar, it was also suggested that physicians who diagnose patients with chronic disorders must map the psychological impact with equal importance as co-morbidity can magnify due to the interlinking of diseases.

Between adjusting to Work from home, children’s online school-college education, lack of contact with other family members, friends and colleagues and accepting the changes of lifestyle while mitigating the fear of contracting the virus, the mental health of people took a beating. Stress became a common and consistent emotion.

In severe cases, it even led to clinical depression. Reflecting on how stress and depression are often confused with each other, Dr Kumar, one of the experts among the pantheons from the field of mental health said, “Stress and anxiety are very different from Depression. Stress is not a disorder, but more of a reaction triggered by an external stimulus which may be uncomfortable. It is often used within the professional context to indicate an uncomfortable situation, wherein we must be careful not to interchange the meaning of sadness, stress, anxiety, and depression. Having said that, chronic disorder can lead to depression, if not monitored within time.”

The critical takeaways from the insightful session, included ways to handle a person with suicidal ideation with utmost vigilance on behalf of family members & social support, tips to parents and children on time management and active listening to prevent feelings of isolation and detachment, stages of post-partum depression, looking out for symptoms of depression in someone suffering from prolonged sadness and normalizing seeking professional help to resolve and steer ahead.

The session was moderated by Dr Rajesh Kesari, founder and director, Total Care Control who also shed some light on the gravitas of the topic and highlighted the need of acknowledging the existence of the problem of depression, which is still considered a taboo, as he successfully summarized the discussion with expert inputs of the esteemed panel.

Health

Penetration Of Mobile Phones Higher Than Glasses In India, Only 50% Of Population Who Needs It Actually Wear Them – Says Experts at Assocham’s ‘Illness to Wellness’ Series

Oct 17, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Anil Rajput, #ASSOCHAM CSR Council, #Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, #Dr GV Divakar, #Dr Rajashekar YL, #Dr Saurabh Choudhry

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), one of the apex trade associations of India concluded the ninth edition of the ‘Illness to Wellness’ series themed webinar on ‘Eye Health Care and Online Practices During COVID-19’. The event saw an elite panel of leading ophthalmologists, hold an active dialogue on eye care during COVID-19 and best practices for eye health during long hours of screen time.

Supported by the hygiene brand SAVLON, the programme, an innovative and comprehensive approach to cascade awareness through wellness campaigns to address preventive healthcare management and to promote health, hygiene, and well-being of people, the webinar saw renowned panellists speak at length on how India has taken great strides in raising awareness about eye care health across the country through eye-checkup camps over the years and have been able to educate the population about curable eye conditions such as cataract, refractive surgery, diabetes retinography and others, however, the country still has a long way to go.

Highlighting on the issue, Padma Shri Prof (Dr) Mahipal Singh Sachdev, Chairman & Medical Director, Centre for Sight and President of All India Ophthalmological Society said, “If we look at the penetration of mobile phone, it is over a billion which means almost everyone in the country owns a mobile phone. However, around 25%-35% of the population needs simple glasses for vision and only about 50% of them actually wear.

This is a disconnect created due to lack of awareness. It should be well established that after a child is born after it is one year old and for every year it is in school, it should undergo eye checkups and wear glasses if needed. If you need glasses for refractive error correction and do not wear it then it can affect your performance in school and college. Awareness needs to be increased as it is only in India that the largest cause of blindness is cataract, a completely reversible disease.”

Shedding light on India’s advancement in ophthalmology, he further added that India currently conducts more cataract operations than US, Europe and China combined, and they do so at a fraction of the cost charged globally. This advancement is also leading to a reverse brain drain where doctors are coming to India to train in ophthalmology.

Padma Shri Dr. RV Ramani, Founder and Managing Trustee of Sankara Eye Foundation adding to the discussion said, “The awareness has picked up in comparison to what it was 20-30 years back especially in rural India. We had to go and convince them that they are in safe hands and that it is a safe procedure and also speak of diseases that are curable. Though urban people had awareness they were not aware of specific conditions like glaucoma and diabetes retinopathy. People need to know that these conditions when checked early and treated appropriately can be effectively resolved.”

He further cautioned that COVID-19 should not be a reason for patients to postpone their checkups and eye surgeries as eye hospitals are taking all precautions to keep patients and caregivers safe. He emphasized that patients should not delay checkups for glass correction, routine glaucoma checkup, cataract, and others in fear of entering hospitals as it can adversely affect their conditions.

Commenting on the phenomenon of increased screen time, Dr Saurabh Choudhry, CEO & HOD, ICARE Eye Hospital & PG Institute, explained how Computer Vision Syndrome impacts those working before screens for long hours said, “Computer Vision Syndrome is a new type of disease that has started to take shape as more and more people started working in front of computers and felt symptoms like redness, irritation, difficulty in focusing and others.

For professionals, we suggest that you take a break every 20 minutes for about 20 seconds and look at something 20 feet away. This will relax the muscles and then they can start working again. You can also opt for automated methods where the screen goes dark every 20 minutes and you are forced to take a little break. This will enhance blood circulation to the eyes, neck and back so everything is taken care of by following the 20-20-20 rule. Other factors like the lighting of the room, the position of the body, quality of the computer screen and others also need to be taken care of.”

Dr GV Divakar, Managing Director, Divakars Speciality Hospital and Asian Research & Training Institute for Skill Transfer, elaborating on how the increase of screen time during the pandemic is occurring in both children and adults due to online classes and work from home respectively, said, “Prolonged exposure to screens can lead to developing symptoms of Computer Vision Syndrome where the patient gets headaches, redness etc.

When you look at the screen for too long, the blinking rate reduces and can lead to symptoms of dry eyes. To avoid that, we should reduce the duration of screen time, resolution of the screen and can also use supplements like eye drops.”

He also added that use of online devices such as phones and laptops have significantly gone up during the pandemic by almost 75% but this needs to be controlled as normal screen time should be maximum 30-35 minutes at a stretch. It is advisable that teachers take classes for 30-35 minutes and then give a gap of 15 minutes before resuming classes.

Anil Rajput, Chairman, ASSOCHAM CSR Council added to the discussion by speaking on best practices to keep our eyes protected said, “It is extremely important that we avoid touching the mucous membrane of our mouth, nose and eyes as any contamination on the surface of any object can easily pass on the virus through this mode. It has also been suggested that glasses provide a shield by protecting the eyes from any droplets that can enter through the eye.”

Dr Rajashekar YL, Founder Director, Shekar Eye Hospital who moderated the webinar by placing pertinent questions before the panellists and ensuring a fertile discussion said, “During COVID-19 many people have had the wrath of neglecting non-COVID diseases so we saw a lot of patients getting into eye-related problems because of the neglect. Nobody should lose vision because of the fear of going into a hospital or due to lack of awareness.”