Helpline launched to deal with Covid stress

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 9

Apprehensions about the future, anxiety, desperation of being away from family and job insecurity have emerged major reasons for stress among people during the lockdown as per feedback from counsellors engaged for helping people in distress.

The Shimla administration has launched a helpline and released a list of telephone numbers of 18 counsellors to deal with stress, depression and other psychiatric issues and uploaded the same on its Facebook page. The counsellors, who have volunteered themselves, can be contacted on their mobile numbers from 10 am to 5 pm and about 200 queries were received on the first day, said DC Amit Kashyap.

As per survey, nearly 20 per cent of the people globally had gone into depression due to lockdown and handling stress had become a major challenge. Therefore, counselling had become the need of the hour to ensure healthy mind of residents, he added.

“Apprehensions about the future and fear of uncertainty have led to anxiety among the people who want to know that when things will get better and life to become normal, said counsellor Neelam Bali, adding that, “We tell callers to look at the bright picture as India is still better as compared to other countries. The telecast of the ‘Ramayana’ and the ‘Mahabharata’, which is keeping people glued to television for about four hours daily, is a good change.”

“One of the queries from a person stranded outside the state was that when he would be able to return home and our advice was to stay where he was while another caller, pursuing course in tourism, was worried about his future placement. We suggested him not to think about the future and live the present and focus on his studies,” said another counsellor Manoj.

The Shimla administration had gone tough on Covid curfew. All vehicles entering Shimla were being sanitised on entry point at Shoghi and all persons were being screened. At present, they had four screening machines, the DC said.