17th November 2018 proved to be industrious for the doctors of MGIMS and all over the nation when the Department of Psychiatry organized a first National CME meet on the hot topic of Industrial mental health. This new found offshoot of the discipline mainly deals with care of mental health aspect of the industrial population.
The inaugural proceedings of the meet were chaired by Mr Dhirubhai S Mehta (President, Kasturba Health Society), who emphasized on the importance of preserving mental well being of the industrial workers to improve the industrial output. Dr BS Garg (Secretary, Kasturba Health Society) and Dr Nitin Gangane (Dean, MGIMS) also shared their valuable opinions at this event. Dr (Brig) MSVK Raju (President, Industrial Psychiatry) addressed on the impact of rapid globalization industry of the country in the mental health issue.
Academic sessions started with a thought provoking speech by Dr Sudhir Bhave (Professor, NKPSIMS, Nagpur) entitled 'Psychological factors affecting industrial productivity'. This was followed by talks on rational thinking in industry by Dr Vivek Kirpekar (Professor and Head Psychiatry, NKPSIMS, Nagpur) and burnout syndrome in Industrial workers by Dr Sushil Gawande, (Associate professor of Psychiatry at NKPSIMS, Nagpur). Dr Abhishek Somani (Professor and Head IGGMC, Nagpur) spoke about the detrimental effects of smartphone use in workers as well as common people. Among the other notable issues discussed at the event were 'Substance use problems in the industrial workers' by Dr P.K. Dalal (Professor of Psychiatry at KGMU Lucknow) and 'implications of mental health act' by Dr Tophan Pati (Consultant Psychiatrist at Bhubaneswar). Dr (Col) Chaudhary (Professor Psychiatry at DY Patil college, Pune) threw light on importance of positive psychology in office settings in his enlightening talk. The key attraction of the program however was Mr MSVN Raju (Head, Integrated solutions of India, Sartorius Stadim and an Industrial manager), who spoke to the delegates about the cultural differences affecting the psyche of the industrial workers. He represented the industrial management in the program which was otherwise predominated by psychiatrists.
The concluding remarks were eloquently put forward by Dr (Brig) MSVK Raju (President of Association of Industrial Psychiatry of India) who summed up the entire event as well as urged the necessity of more such programs in collaboration with industrial management. Vote of thanks was given by Dr (Surg. Cdr) KK Mishra, the organizing chairman of CME and Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry MGIMS. The organizing team and support staff seemed to have put up a laborious effort to make the event a grand success.