An outreach program aimed at supporting and improving the mental health of Chennai’s police force has been set in motion. The city police have partnered with the M.S. Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation (MSCTRF) and other institutions like NIMHANS to run the program.
This initiative is part of the Tamil Nadu government’s program named “Magizhchi” (“happiness” in Tamil) launched in 2022. The aim of the program is to provide holistic support for issues like alcohol addiction, clinical depression, and PTSD through a multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers to police personnel and their families. Support is made available by telephone and through home visits for effective reach.
The team identified around 1,000 members of the police force that needed intervention, and then a personalized treatment plan was developed for each of them. Of these, around 550 members were reported to have fully recovered.
“If not for this program, I don’t think I would have been alive today,” a policewoman whose personal and work stress had given rise to suicidal tendencies said to the Times of India.
