BENGALURU: The pandemic has taken a toll on many doctors who have been working round the clock. The Psychiatric helpline, that was started for doctors by Indian Medical Association - Karnataka (IMA-K), in coordination with Indian Psychiatric Society-Karnataka and National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), has been receiving 10 to15 calls per day.
The helpline was launched last month to cater to doctors who are under immense pressure during the pandemic. “There are 10 phone lines under the centralised helpline with doctors volunteering at different hours of the day to provide immediate counselling to other distressed doctors and their family. The response has been good so far,” said Dr K S Karanth, chairman of IMA-K Psychiatry cell. He added that the pandemic was the most commonly found stress factor in medicos.
“They are worried about the danger of exposure to Covid, owing to their interaction with patients. Harassment from patients, inability to spend time with family, dealing with patients who are lax about precautions often leading to arguments, and hearing about Covid deaths of other doctors, lead to insomnia, mild anxiety, depression, etc. These are some of the issues we have heard,” said Dr Ganesh Prasad, one of the core-committee psychiatrists offering assistance.
Prasad said many doctors fear passing on the virus to elderly parents or kids at home. “The possibility of having to get quarantined if they get infected, the economicloss and social deprivation that comes with it is another factor causing psychological trauma. Many doctors themselves are heart patients or suffer from diabetes and hypertension,” he added.
Dr Sanjeev Kumar, faculty at Centre for Psychosocial support in Disaster Management said, this is an IVRS system, where a particular number has to be pressed, if a doctor is seeking help. “The call will be transferred to the volunteer who is a mental health professional, psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, psychiatric social worker or psychiatric nurse. If they are unable to help due to the nature of the problem, the call is referred to senior consultants. If the problem still cannot be dealt by them, the doctor is then referred to a physical clinic at a tertiary level, where there is a multidisciplinary team,” Dr Kumar said.