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Letter to Editor
Strategies to tackle by
primary care physicians
to mental health issues
in India in COVID‑19
pandemic
Dear editor,
Today India is facing the highest‑burden and consequences
to the Covid‑19 pandemic. Everyone has been impacted and
in stress related to economic issues, health issues, family
issues, and social issues, etc., This kind of stress may further
lead to mental health issues. COVID, lockdown, quarantine
consequent increasing mental health burden worldwide.
Policymakers should rethink for primary health care and
primary health care warriors fighting with limited resources
at the rural setup in India. There are observed very limited
mental health facilities available in rural India.
A study published by Jitendra Rohilla et al. highlighted a very
important issue of primary care physicians approach for the
mental health impact of COVID ‑19. He focused on the
importance of the role of telemedicine as a supportive tool in
this crisis.[1] He concluded that knowledge of common mental
health conditions and psychotropics and liaison with mental
health specialist through telemedicine could be a suitable
approach for family physicians treating patients suffering from
both psychological and medical disorders.[1]
Herewith we would like to add the following strategies that could
be helpful to tackle primary care Physicians to mental health
issues in India in COVID‑19 pandemic and making it more
simplified, realistic, usable, etc.
1. Utilization of regular mobile applications by primary care
physicians like WhatsApp, WhatsApp calling, Zoom, Google
Meet, etc., These may lead to direct increasing person to
person communications, sharing of diagnostic reports,
medication reports, etc.
2. Arrangement of webinars (short duration) for primary
care physicians on dedicated mental health issues, current
scenarios, counseling management by state authorities,
regional centers, tertiary care centers, Rotary clubs, medical
Institutions, by local IMA forums, etc.
3. Releasing counseling seminars, discussion forum program
on local Radio, FM channels.
4. Connect the physicians in groups and making regional
networking with ICT (Information and communication
technology) enabled tools.
5. Circulation of PDF files, videos, multimedia content or
e‑content with the latest information related to mental health.
6. Preparation of mental health hotline by government agencies.
7. Developing specialized mobile applications dedicated
to a mental health issue with the private partnership by
government authorities.
8. Arrangement of yoga sessions, laughter club sessions at
COVID centers with proper measurements.
Though in real government or policymakers has very little
attention over this issue. These few simple measures can
receive extensive important support in the current situation to
the primary health care system and dedicated warriors. Their
motivation, support care, improving knowledge will surely help
in reducing mental health‑related burdens.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
Motilal C. Tayade1,2
Departments of Physiology, Rural Medical College, Pravara
Institute of Medical Sciences (DU), Loni, Maharashtra,
2
PIMS (DU) Bioethics Unit, PIMS (DU) Loni, Maharashtra, India
1
Address for correspondence: Dr. Motilal C.Tayade,
Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences (DU) Loni, Tal Rahata, Dist
© 2020 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care | Published by Wolters Kluwer ‑ Medknow
Ahmednagar, Maharashtra ‑ 413736, India.
E‑mail: drmctayade@gmail.com
5814
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Letter to Editor
Reference
1.
This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution‑NonCommercial‑ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to
remix, tweak, and build upon the work non‑commercially, as long as appropriate credit is
given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
Rohilla J, Tak P, Jhanwar S, Hasan S. Primary care physician’s
approach for mental health impact of COVID‑19. J Family
Med Prim Care 2020;9:3189‑94.
Received: 19-08-2020
Accepted: 07-10-2020
Revised: 06-10-2020
Published: 30-11-2020
Access this article online
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Website:
www.jfmpc.com
DOI:
10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1626_20
How to cite this article: Tayade MC. Strategies to tackle by primary
care physicians to mental health issues in India in COVID-19 pandemic.
J Family Med Prim Care 2020;9:5814-5.
© 2020 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care | Published by Wolters Kluwer ‑ Medknow
Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care
5815
Volume 9 : Issue 11 : November 2020