With depression emerging as a public health concern, the Indian Psychiatric Society’s (IPS) Combat Depression Task Force has joined hands with a Mysuru-based education technology startup to launch a short-duration free online learning module.
The 28-minute learning module will provides a glimpse into various aspects of depression including risk assessment of suicide and management principles as per World Health Organization (WHO) specifications.
The module, available both on the web and mobile phones, is different from the current mobile apps on mental health, said convener of IPS Combat Depression Task Force M. Kishor, who is also an associate professor of psychiatry at JSS Medical College in Mysuru.
“This a simple learning module that can be understood even by the public unlike the apps, which merely provide information. It also has animated videos and also gives downloadable links to books on mental health even in Kannada,” he said.
An initiative of IPS Combat Depression Task Force and JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, the module contains eight nuggets beginning with a two-minute introduction to depression.
The module also contains the diagnostic criteria for depression, risk factors that lead to suicide in depression, prevention of suicide, etiology or factors for development of depression, differential diagnosis of depression, pharmacological treatment of depression, psychotherapy in depression and conclusion.
The module can be downloaded on your mobile from the ‘Enhanzed’ app on Google Play or App Store and then register on it. Type depression in the search bar.
On the web platform for laptops and desktops, the users can go to https://www.demo.enhanzed.com/#/page. The users should sign up/register before searching for content on depression and accessing the same. Users can also login using a Facebook account and access the content on depression.