Pledge & Rally for anti-narcotics abuse

Publications by Department Faculties

Meeting organised for anti drug abuse day today -- 26/6/25 by NRT Theni faculties and given awareness speech  and sensitisation against drug use

Yoga therapy- 17/7/25

ACHIEVEMENTS

The Department of Psychiatry provides comprehensive treatment for a variety of psychiatric illnesses through both outpatient and inpatient services, catering to all age groups.

Special Services Provided:

• Suicide Prevention Clinic:
  Through this clinic, about 100 people and their families are psycho-educated each month.

• Deaddiction Clinic:
  About 130 to 150 individuals benefit from this service every month.

• Postnatal Clinic:
  Various cases of postpartum psychiatric disorders have been identified and managed in a timely manner.

• Child and Adolescent Clinic:
  Conducted regularly, providing disability certification for social security benefits and educational concessions.

• MANAM Program:
  About 1,000+ medical and paramedical students have been given awareness training to promote mental health and well-being.
  Regular follow-ups are conducted to ensure student welfare, and more than 60 beneficiaries have utilized these services.

• Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT):
  Over 150 patients have been successfully treated with ECT so far.

• Disability Certification:
  Provided for monetary benefits to individuals with mental illness and intellectual disabilities.

• Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) Activities:
  Conducted through awareness programs, rallies, CME sessions, posters, bookmarks, skits, mime shows, reel-making competitions, and more within our medical college.

• Institute of Mental Health (Old GH Campus):
  A separate institute functioning in the old GH campus, providing inpatient and outpatient services along with rehabilitation activities.

• ECRC (Emergency Care and Recovery Centre):
  A 10-bedded ward functioning within the campus that provides short-stay facilities for wandering homeless mentally ill persons.

• Academic Programs:
  Various academic programs are conducted regularly for Undergraduate and Postgraduate students in the department.

Featured in Kungumam Magazine (Issue 46, Pages 86–91) for contribution to Tamil Nadu Government’s Mental Health Art Initiative.
Click here to view PDF

Title:

The walls that create a therapeutic environment for the mentally ill

Description:

When inpatients at the Institute of Mental Health in Theni feel confined within the 100-bed hospital, they spend time admiring the beautifully painted murals on the inner walls.

These murals, created with public involvement, have transformed the old hospital’s walls into a therapeutic environment that helps break the taboo and stigma associated with mental illness.

The initiative was led by Dr. S. Muthu Chitra, Dean of Theni Government Medical College Hospital, with contributions from local artists, students, and the community.

The paintings include prehistoric rock art, Warli, Gond, and Madhubani styles — each carrying a sense of calm and storytelling that positively affects both patients and caretakers.

The project, called “Walls that Heal,” has improved the atmosphere of the hospital, offering relaxation and visual therapy to patients suffering from anxiety, OCD, and panic attacks.

Link Section:

Click here to see PDF

The social historians of science identified three major revolutions which had a huge impact on human perspectives to see things.
First, Copernicus unsettled the commonly held belief that the Earth is the centre of the universe; he placed the Sun at the centre instead.
Second, Charles Darwin threw a severe blow to the convention that a divine order determines the evolutionary scale of organisms; he showed that natural selection shapes biological evolution.
Third, Dr. Sigmund Freud, the Viennese psychiatrist, in his turn disturbed the sleep of humanity by asserting that men are not the masters of their own house and that the inner world of human beings is governed by darker forces beyond one’s control.

Though well grounded in science, Freud had high regard for creative artists and writers.
He often said that the discoveries he made through laborious study and rigorous scientific methodology were the same complexities of the mind that artists had found through deep artistic intuition. His awe for creativity manifests in his statement: “Everywhere I go, I find a poet has been there before me.” His theoretical writings abound with references to literary works. For example, he drew inspiration from the Greek playwright Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex, and he named his popular theory “Oedipus Complex” in memory of that play.

Just to keep with the Freudian artistic spirit, we, the team of mental health professionals of the Institute of Mental Health, Theni, ventured a plan to have a science dialogue with creative arts. As a consequence, we started a mural wall-painting event on the IMH campus, with the conviction that colours will have a therapeutic effect on the myriad emotions of the inmates, caretakers, and the visiting general public.

In our effort, M.B.B.S. students from Govt. Theni Medical College, nursing students, and students from government and private schools joined hands to brush their strokes and beautify the walls on the eve of Mental Health Day 2025.
Yes… the walls now stand witness to tell our collective efforts.