Television Serial Focuses on Psychosocial Issues

Television Serial Focuses on Psychosocial Issues of Children and
Adolescents - Mann Ki Baat - New Delhi, Delhi, India
29-07-2010 02:56 PM
‘Mann Ki Baat’ (eu dh ckr), the new and already popular new series on Mental
Health awareness on Doordarshan, now launches episodes on Psychosocial issues of
Children and Adolescents. These episodes address an increasing number of
challenges faced by children, parents and teachers today.
The first three episodes of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ that have received an excellent response,
dealt with the Mind, the importance of mental health, as well as tips on how to
handle Stress and its manifestations on an individual and society.
The forthcoming episodes of the series deal with Psychosocial issues of Children
and Adolescents. Recent figures from the Indian Council for Medical Research
(ICMR) show that nearly 13% or 50 million Indian children below the age of 15 years
require mental health care in the country. If one looks at day-to-day stress related
behavioral or psychological problems in children, the figures would be much higher.
This coupled with the fact that mental health professionals are mainly concentrated
in large Indian cities, empowering the parents, teachers and the children themselves
becomes a priority.
An increasing number of children today are suffering from stress within the confines
of their home that is creating mental as well as physical problems for them. At
school, children face too much expectation from their parents as well as their school
system that is wrecking havoc on their mental health. There is increased level of
stress leading to aggression and disruptive behavior in young children.
Adolescence is a period of rapid physical and psychological transition which make
adolescents particularly vulnerable to emotional conflicts and behavioral disorders.
The episodes on adolescents deal with stress that adolescents face within their family
environment and offers useful tips to parents to communicate effectively with their
children. Adolescents also face a lot of stress from their peers to experiment with
alcohol, drugs, sex etc. The series talks about the importance of life skills to
empower adolescents to deal with the challenging situations of their day to day life.
An entire episode is dedicated to the particularly difficult career choices that are
creating a lot of stress in adolescents today.
Dr. Manju Mehta, Professor of Clinical Psychology at AIIMS and a well known face in
the media along with Dr. Deepak Gupta, prominent Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
will be the experts on the episodes on childrens’ issues. Noted author and columnist
on adolescents’ issues, Mrs. Sumati Ghosh, and Life Skills expert Mrs. Asheema
Singh will be the guests on the episodes dealing with psychosocial problems of
adolescents. Celebrated career counselor Pervin Malhotra will also appear on the
show as an expert in an effort to reach out and make adolescents’ career choices a
little simpler.
These episodes will be aired every Wednesday and Friday from the 30th of July in
‘Mann Ki Baat’- a series on Mental Health at 8:30 a.m. on Doordarshan’s
National channel.
Media contact details
Dr. Avdesh Sharma, MANN KI BAAT, +91 9811078599
avdeshsharma@rahat.org
Dr. Sujatha D. Sharma, MANN KI BAAT, +91 9810645808
Garima Dawer, MANN KI BAAT, +91 9873092715