Empower family physicians to give psychological first aid: Dr Parikh

Increasing awareness in the country about mental health, says consultant psychiatrist

Family physicians must be “empowered a lot more” to help people in their mental wellbeing as the country doesn’t have enough psychiatrists and counsellors, says Dr SAMIR PARIKH, consultant psychiatrist and chairperson of Fortis National Mental Health Program, Fortis Healthcare. People should be encouraged to talk about their mental health and such conversations must have empathy, he told Namrata Kohli in an interview in Delhi. Edited excerpts:

A premier engineering college in the country had three student suicides in three months. How can suicides be prevented?

Suicide is a concern. Several hundred thousand people die by suicide. In young people,