The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the city government to look into the issue of creating counselling centers at district-level for dealing with depression, mental problems during the pandemic.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan gave the direction while hearing a petition by advocate Sunil Kumar who highlighted the issue of rising cases of suicide, depression, anxiety, stress and other metal health-related issues during extra-ordinary situation created by the COVID-19 crisis.
In his petition, Mr. Kumar stated that the Central and Delhi government have been doing their bit to deal with COVID-19 but the psychological aspects have not been dealt with properly. He said this was resulting in the rising cases of suicide, depression, anxiety, stress and other related issues in the family members belonging to all walks of life.
The petition stated that although the Centre through National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore launched a toll-free helpline number for people who may face any mental health issue due to the ongoing countrywide lockdown, it was not sufficient.
Mr. Kuma said he himself tried the helpline number on June 15 at night but could not get any response and the call finally got disconnected.
He also pointed out that there is a lot of information which are available on the Delhi government website regarding COVID-19 but, he could not find any information regarding counselling for psychological issues.
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