Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Formation of the Dept. of Mental Health, WERC


Looking at the gravity of the situation at hand and the weight of the responsibility being shouldered by BJS, a Department of Mental Health has been set up at WERC with Dr. Ashutosh Chauhan as the Head of the Dept and Dr. Kinjal Goyal (Mental Health Consultant-BJS). After a series of visits to WERC and interactions with the stakeholders and the students by Dr. Chauhan, Dr. Kinjal and Mr. Shantilal Muttha, (Founder, BJS), an MoU was signed between BJS, Meadowlark Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. and Dr. Kinjal Goyal on 29th January 2016 to formalize this association. Together they would roll out diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic interventions for the children at WERC. Dr. Ashutosh Chauhan would offer his professional services with his team of three consultant clinical psychologists at Meadowlark Healthcare.
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Dr. Ashutosh Chauhan (MD, Psychiatry) is one of the leading psychiatrists in Pune. His areas of interest include Neuropsychiatry and Neuro-developmental/ Child Psychiatry. He has scores of publications and research papers to his credit, which he has presented at several national and international forums, this includes several research papers and dissertation in the field of Suicidology. Several awards have been conferred upon him with for his stellar achievements and contribution in the field of psychiatry. He has been often invited as a speaker in various national and international conferences and  symposia, such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists at London, Japanese Society of Psychiatrists and Neurologists, Japan. He was selected for the world psychiatrists' association’s young fellowship program to represent Indian Subcontinent and was later selected by AMH (an organization started by Prof. Norman Sartorius) to represent India for the Leadership course for Young psychiatrists at Singapore. Dr. Chauhan is associated with several leading hospitals in the city and is heading mental health services at Meadowlark Healthcare, an organization with fully equipped specialty and super- specialty polyclinics and comprehensive diagnostic facility across two locations of Fatima Nagar and Shivajinagar in Pune.

Dr. Kinjal Goyal (Ph.D. (Health Psychology)), is a practising psychotherapist and Psychosomatic Counselling and the use of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in the treatment of various psychological and physical issues is her forte. She has completed Basic and Advanced Labs in Human Processes with the Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Sciences and has completed certificate courses  in Psychopharmacology, CBT and Treatments that work with Children from the American Psychological Association. She has worked in the field of online psychotherapy for many years with a client base spanning over 9 countries. She has conducted various workshops for adolescents and parents in various schools in Pune.  She has authored  publications such as a self help book  titled Musings of a Shrink  and also has a creative piece Ashes off the Embers to her credit.

 
http://bjsindia.org/vertical-timeline/vertical-timeline/index.html

Interventions by Meadowlark Healthcare

As a part of the diagnostic screening, Meadowlark Healthcare has identified CPMS (Childhood Psychopathology Measurement Schedule) as a sensitive screening tool, which has already been validated in the Indian context. It is easy to use and is intended to yield best results for this population. (CPMS is standardized on Indian population and is applicable to children of both sexes in the age range of 4-14 years. It measures overall psychopathology in the form of total scores and also the type of psychopathology in the form of eight factorially derived syndromes which have satisfactory reliability and validity. CPMS is proposed to be used as a screening instrument in population surveys to identify disturbed children as well as a research tool involving measurement of childhood psychopathology and its classification.)

With the need to have a care-model which not only takes care of intervention, but also of the prevention aspect, Meadowlark Healthcare would interact with WERC teachers (both hostel and school teachers) and care-givers on an on-going basis. This would be initiated through an interactive workshop for the staff at WERC, primarily with the following objectives:
-to enable them to  understand the difference between normal behavioural changes and pathological behaviour, or a pattern that is a deviation from what is considered as normal;
-to acquaint them with the screening tool, to understand the implication of each item on this tool and to enable them to administer the same properly, in the desired time frame and record the results appropriately.
Based on the results of the screening performed by the teachers, Meadowlark Healthcare would formulate a combination of non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatment plan as per the gravity of the problem diagnosed. The screening results would be used to categorize the students according to the intensity of treatment required. 


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