Mysuru: Every year, Oct. 10 is celebrated as ‘World Mental Health Day.’ It is an opportunity to celebrate this day by organising different awareness programmes for people around and drive actions that promote and protect everyone’s mental health.

The Department of Clinical Psychology, All India Institute of Speech & Hearing (AIISH), Mysuru, also organised Mental Health Awareness Week from Oct. 22 to 29, while organising different awareness activities at AIISH and the community.

Awareness Week commenced with a Painting and Essay Competition for students to promote mental health and well-being with the themes ‘Mental health in digital age’, ‘Mental health matters: Breaking the silence’, ‘The power of healing’ and ‘Mental health as a national priority.’

Prizes for the first three winners were given by the chief guest on Oct. 29. The students were appreciated for their thoughtful expression and creativity.

Dr. Kiran Kumar, former Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Mysore, was the chief guest for the workshop on Oct. 29 on the theme ‘Prioritising mental health at workplace,’ which is also the theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day.

The faculty and staff of AIISH attended the workshop which aimed to support the employees to help them to adapt better with their work pressure, burnout, stressors of daily hassles, relationships, clinical and administrative duties, life circumstances and challenges of life.

Two workshops were conducted for students on ‘Stress Management’ on Oct. 25. This helped them identify the sources and level of stressors. The workshop also offered the students to learn strategies to manage stress like enhancing resilience, improving problem solving skills, adopting more adaptive ways of handling difficult situations, relationships and academics.

Dr. Rushi, Professor and Head, Department of Clinical Psychology welcomed. Dr. Purusotham, Workshop Co-ordinator, proposed a vote of thanks.