IITs, IIMs get in-house psychiatrist.

Updated on: Sunday, September 12, 2010

With more number of stressed out students witnessed these days, premier institutions like IIT and IIM employ residential psychiatrist.

If getting into any of these premier institutes is difficult, coping with the pressure once inside is even more difficult.

Amidst the most hectic and tough academic schedules and with the pressure to perform, the students realize that stress is their worst enemy. Right from Be it the 100-year-old IISc or IIT in Mumbai/Chennai or the IIM-B, stress has become a raging campus epidemic.
Almost all the institutes have counsellors on campus, both student counsellors and professionals. The latter are approached only when the internal centre cannot handle the case.

Dr. Nalini Dwarakanath, psychologist and social counsellor at IISc, told that she counselled many students every month. There are months when there are hardly any cases and times when there are many, she said. Though counselling days are twice a week, if needed, she goes to the campus on other days as well.

In IIT Madras, there is a guidance and counselling unit â€” a student counsellor is available from 9am to 5pm and a psychiatrist available at the IIT Hospital. IIT Mumbai has an on-campus hospital and on its rolls are part-time psychologists and psychiatrists. At least one doctor is on campus every day. IIM-B has a 15-member student body called Mitr and a parent body called Vishwas that consists of professional counsellors.

Current problems faced by the students range from feelings of loneliness and depression to stress caused by increasing academic demands.

The issues are not only confined to the classroom, it could be homesickness or a case of academic backlog or even an affair gone awry. We need to remember that these students are nothing more than teenagers or boys and girls in their early 20s, told an IIT faculty.

Cases at IISc are usually slightly different. Students who are in their second and third year of research go through mental agony when their projects don't go well. They lose heart, tend to change the project and even think of discontinuing.

IITs, IIMs get in-house psychiatrist.

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