A psychiatric hospital launched a one-year course in psychological counselling on Tuesday to meet the demand of mental health professionals “brought sharply into focus by the Covid situation”.
Classes at Antara, a psychiatric hospital and rehabilitation centre at Baruipur in South 24-Parganas on the southern fringes of Kolkata, will begin from February 1. They will be held over online platforms for the time being.
The postgraduate diploma in psychological counselling is an initiative of the academic wing of the hospital, Antara Institute of Health Sciences, that has tied up with Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology for the course.
“...we had realised that we had to start something so that we could train people.... It is a widespread requirement and this requirement has been sharply brought into focus because of the Covid situation,” said Mathew P. John, general secretary, Antara and Antara Institute of Health Sciences.
He said a facility like theirs struggled to get qualified personnel in every department — doctors, nurses, psychologists, counsellors. “We never could never find people when they were required.”
The institute hopes to train more people to fill up the posts.
“Today, people are lamenting that there are no good training centres for mental health professionals... Antara could be of help,” said M. Thomas John, the director of Antara Institute of Health Sciences and chief adviser to Antara.