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Jamshedpur, Oct. 13: Eminent doctors from Jamshedpur and elsewhere will be addressing a seminar on depression tomorrow as an epilogue to World Mental Health Week observed by Tata Steel between October 3 to 10.
Loyola School principal Victor F. Misquith will be chief guest in the presence of Tata Main Hospital general manager T.P. Madhusudanan and other.
The theme of the seminar, to be held at TMH auditorium, is Depression: A Global Crisis. Expected to be addressed by a number of eminent medical practitioners, the event will also see a number of panel discussions.
Depression, which can afflict anyone anywhere in the world, affects around 350 million people across the world today. It is a serious mental disorder which is likely to become the second highest cause of world disability by 2020 and the leading cause by 2030.
Depression hinders normal functioning of the affected person leading to loss of energy and enthusiasm as well as feelings of low self-esteem. If untreated, it poses serious danger to the person and others in his surroundings.
In extreme cases, it could lead to the affected person taking his / her own life and even those of others. Around one million lives are lost every year to suicides.
According to World Health Organization statistics, for every suicide, there are another 20 attempted cases.
Depression can be treated and managed with counselling and medication. Social stigma, lack of resources with the affected person and shortage of trained treatment providers form the primary barriers to effective management of depression.
Therefore, the role of individual family members of those afflicted by depression becomes crucial. They can take guidance from mental health organisations, family support groups, advocacy groups and individual mental health professionals on how to provide the affected person with the love and understanding needed to help him/ her cope with depression.
The community also needs to realise that co-operating and empathising with the affected person and his/ her family leads to better integration of the patient into everyday life and allows normalcy to set in.
Such seminars are regularly organised by TMH, keeping in mind the issues that effect society with the hospital's objective to make the community healthy.
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