“You live most of your life inside your head; make sure it’s a nice place to be”

Mental health is as important as physical health. Mental illness is one of the leading causes of morbidity globally. Prevalence of mental illness in our country is still under-gauged. This can be attributed to various reasons, which includes social stigma, covert nature, and poor social awareness. Keeping this in the forestage, our institution has initiated the services in the domain of mental health in the year 2006. The Department of Psychiatry was formed with the most dedicated professional of the faculty. Initially, we the service was proved for about 10 patients per day. Gradually over years, we equipped ourselves with the state-of-the-art facilities and have attracted a minimum of 50 patients per day. The department is currently functioning with a team of scholarly faculties who strive to provide mental health services based on the latest evidence-based treatment protocol. With the aim of benefitting the underprivileged population, we have extended a helping hand

24/7 Psychiatry help-line (8489446444)

HOD Profile

Prof.Dr.R.Kumar did his under-graduation in Tanjore Medical College in the year 1976. He completed his Post-graduation (DPM) in 1980 with the University Gold Medal. He joined Tamilnadu Medical Service in the year 1981. After years of service he went on pursue his Masters in Psychiatry at Madras Medical College in the year 1982-84 and obtained University first rank.

He then joined Head Quarters Hospital, Thrichy which was upgraded as Medical College in the year 1995. He was placed and promoted as Associate professor at the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College, Salem in the year 2003. He was promoted to the grade of Professor at KAPP Government Medical College. In the year 2011, he served the Institute of Mental Health as Professor & Head of the department, MMC Chennai. He completed his service in the month of April 2012. Since then he is serving as Professor & Head of the Department at our college.

Papers and publications

✶ Marital interaction of male neurotic – was presented at the IPSOCON 1984 held at Coimbatore.

✶ The same study was published in the Indian journal of Psychological Medicine.

✶ 2 case presentations – A case of trans-sexualism & a case of Turners syndrome was presented at TANPSYCON.

✶ Currently on the pipeline, A epidemiological prevalence of psychiatric illness in a rural area of Villupuram district is being conducted covering more than 45000 population. It is the largest epidemiological survey conducted in India.

✶ He has guided several thesis papers of Post-graduate students in his career.

Conferences organized

✶ He organized TANSPYCON in the year 1984.

✶ He had organized the National Conference of Biological Psychiatry along with Dr. Gopalakrishnan in the year 1987.

✶ He had organized the National Conference of Social Psychiatry along with Dr. Gopalakrishnan in the year 1991

✶ He inaugurated the first District Mental Health Program in the state of Tamilnadu in the year 1985 and has devised a format of functioning which is followed throughout the country till date.

✶ He functioned as a District Psychiatrist from 1995 to 2011

✶ During the initiation of Mental Health Program, he has organized more than 265 lectures addressing doctors in PHC, staff nurses, ANMs, pharmacist, and BDOs. Lectures were given by efficient Psychiatrists from various parts of Tamilnadu.

✶ Mental health festivals were conducted at 6 taluks of thrichy. Each centre in each taluk gets about 300 cases /day.

✶ He has been a resource person in giving lectures at various bodies of Psychiatric societies which covered delirium, dementia, sexual inadequacies, neurodevelopment & neurodegenerative aspects of schizophrenia, glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia, general psychiatric problems encountered in medical practice.

✶ He has delivered lectures in various popular medias, including TV, AIR.

✶ He has given more than 5000 public lectures targeting various groups of population.

✶ He has also released a CD in tamil named “INIYA MANAMAE“.

Field of interest

Neuropsychiatry, sexual & marital medicine and CBT & MET.

Out-patient & In-patient services:

The Department of Psychiatry offers both inpatient and outpatient clinical services, with a wide range of facilities.

24-hours availability of the services provides extended care and admissions at any time.

24-hours psychiatric emergency care provided by our department faculties.

Management of all psychiatric disorders is done with both pharmacological and psychosocial interventions.

Consultation- liaison services with other in-house clinical departments.

Available services:

✶ Marital psychosexual clinic

✶ De-addiction clinic

✶ Geriatric

✶ Memory clinic

✶ Community Psychiatry

✶ Child guidance clinic

✶ Suicide prevention clinic

✶ Family counseling

✶ Psychomotor clinic

✶ Psychodermatology clinic

Therapies

Biological therapies

✶ Modified Electroconvulsive Therapy (MECT)

✶ Ketamine therapy

✶ Narcoanalysis

✶ Hypnosis

✶ Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)

Psychotherapies

✶ Cognitive behavioral therapy / Behavioral therapy

✶ Motivation enhancement therapy

✶ Marital / Couple therapy

✶ Family counseling

✶ Sexual therapy

✶ Aversion therapy

✶ Exposure response prevention therapy

Rehabilitation:

✶ Laundry and ironing

✶ Tailoring

✶ Workshop

✶ Craft making

✶ Paper cover making

Special Clinics are conducted on weekly basis. The schedule is as below,

1. The following clinics are held over the week

2. The following clinics are held on daily basis:

Under-graduation:

Learning objectives:-

✶ Able to identify signs and symptoms of common psychiatric illness

✶ Able to identify developmental and cognitive delays in children

✶ Able to apply basic counseling skills

✶ Aware of common psychopharmacological interventions in psychiatry

✶ Able to deliver mental health services at the primary care level

CRRI’s are trained in diagnosing and managing the common mental disorders and to handle the emergencies in psychiatry during their 2 weeks posting.

Post-graduation:

Post graduate MD program has been started since 2012 with intake of 2 seats/year. The teaching schedules are being carried out based on the Pondicherry University syllabus.

The departmental academic activities include a minimum of (monthly)

Other activities include weekly debates, joint presentations or panel discussions, film based discussions.

Assessment of students is done based on the regularity of attendance, level of participation in academic activities, and the quality of presentation. Internal assessment tests (both theory and practical) are being conducted on weekly basis. Clinical skills are documented in their log book regularly.

Basic sciences (Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology) and specialty teaching are being taught by the senior faculty of the respective departments. Interdepartmental meetings are conducted with various allied departments to enable them attain adequate knowledge. Workshops on research methodology and statistics are conducted in association with department of community medicine. They are trained to conduct the thesis in an efficient way.

Training in Clinical Psychology is given by the Department of clinical psychology which is head by experienced clinical psychologist, psychologist and a psychiatry social worker. All sorts of psychological testing, assessments and psychotherapies are taught.

They are given special hands-on training on management of psychiatric emergencies.

They are engaged in peripheral postings at NIMHANS which includes child psychiatry, De-addiction and Psychiatric rehabilitation. They are also posted in Neurology and General medicine.

Post-Graduates :

University Medals

✶ Community visited Thiruvennainallur Rural Health Training Centre every Friday between 8am to 1pm.

✶ School visits.

✶Awareness programmes.

✶ October 5 – 10 (2015) – Mental Health week celebration

✶ September 10 (2015) – World Suicide prevention day celebration

✶ November 27 (2015) – CME on Child Psychiatry

✶ June 11 (2016) – Workshop on hypnosis

✶ October 10 (2016) – Mental Health day celebration

✶ September 10 (2016) – World Suicide prevention day celebration

✶ November 25 (2016) – CME on Sex – myths and facts

✶ September 10 (2017) – World Suicide prevention day celebration

✶ September 21 (2017) – World Alzheimer’s day celebration

✶ October 10 (2017) – Mental Health day celebration

✶ November 11 (2017) – CME on Adolescent Psychiatry

✶ September 10 (2018) – World Suicide prevention day celebration

✶ October 12 (2018) – Mental Health day celebration