SRINAGAR, NOVEMBER 13: Minister for Health and Medical Education, Social Welfare and Education, Sakeena Masood today said the government will work on a recruitment policy and that vacant posts of lecturers, professors, and teachers will be filled soon.
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of a function at SKICC, she said that it is true that recruitment was hit in the past few years, but the process has been started.
She said that drug addiction and depression among youngsters is a challenging task to tackle, but the government will take every possible measure to control the situation.
Earlier, she inaugurated a Conference on Child Mental Health and Psychosocial Support at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) here.
Secretary Health and Medical Education, Dr. 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 specialties, 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”, she added.
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 health care 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, Dr. Syed Abid Rasheed said that the purpose and intent of this conference are very big as we are writing 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 organizers 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 failures from an early age.
Dr. Abid 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, the Head CGWC- IMHANS, Dr. Zaid Wani gave a detailed presentation on the operations of the center. He outlined the awareness programs organized by the IMHANS to deal with this pressing issue.
Special Child Protectionist, UNICEF, Vijay Lakshmi Arora, and HoD, IMHANS, Dr. Mohammad Maqbool also spoke on the occasion.
Pertinently, 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.