Dr. Tajamul Hussain
Associate Professor
As the In-charge Head it is my privilege to welcome you all to the newly established Department of , GMC, Baramulla.
“There is no health without mental health.” As this adage goes, mental health forms an important but often neglected part of our lives today. According to the World Health Organization-WHO, common mental disorders like unipolar depression will be the second leading cause of disability (DALY’s) by the year 2020. Easy accessibility of mental health services is thus need of the hour. The establishment of this department will go a long way in fulfilling that need, especially for the people of North Kashmir.
Currently the department is running thrice a week outpatient (OPD) services where patients are getting psychiatric consultations besides counselling and psychotherapy (in collaboration with MSF). With the meagre manpower and space available at present, the department is providing the best possible patient care. With the increase in manpower and infrastructure in near future, we should be able to expand our services further.
Our short term goals would be strengthening of already existing OPD services and starting speciality clinics like the Memory Clinic and Drug Treatment Clinic-DTC (in collaboration with NDDTC AIIMS New Delhi). In addition, we would be looking to introduce novel methods of treatment like ECT, t-DCS and r-TMS besides starting inpatient (IPD) facilities for severely ill patients. As the first academic session of this medical college starts this year, the department wishes to actively participate in all the academic activities of undergraduate students and is committed to impart basic knowledge of the subject to them.
However, in our long-term goals, we progressively look forward to start postgraduate MD, and DNB courses, so that highly qualified mental health professionals will be trained, enabling them to be at their highest level of their clinical acumen and capability of doing high quality research especially in the field of mental health. Also, an important need of the hour would be to establish an advanced independent Drug De-addiction Centre under GMC Baramulla as per the recommendations of recently published Drug De-Addiction Policy of the state. Profoundly, the department would like develop strong cooperation with allied departments of the institute in order to establish highly integrated advancing centre for “neurosciences” capable of providing the best world class clinical facilities and services related to neurology, neurosurgery and , based on world renowned NIMHANS model. Taken together, with the support and cooperation of the Health and Medical Education Department, Government of J&K, other initiatives, and the valuable support, guidance and much needed directions from Principal GMC, Baramulla, would greatly help us to make this department a center of excellence at both academic as well as clinic front.
