Health Helpline '104' & Tele-MANAS helpline functioning round the clock to provide mental health support to students

CHENNAI: With the class 12 examination results being declared on Monday and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) being conducted in the State on Sunday, the 104' Health Helpline and '14416' Tele-MANAS call center are functioning round the clock to provide mental health support to the students.

The students who did not clear the examination are being provided counselling support with the support of 30 help desk with 100 counsellors from the state health department through 104 helpline and Tele-MANAS '14416'.

As many as 7,60,606 students have appeared for the 12th exam this year, but 51,919 students have not qualified for 12th examination and the list of 51,919 students was provided to health department by the Department of School Education to facilitate counselling services. The list comprises of 32,164 boys and 19,755 girls.

A team of 10 help desks is functioning at the 104 health helpline center and Tele-MANAS each, at the DMS campus manned by 30 psychologists as counsellors, three clinical psychologists and one psychiatrist.

The high risk students identified through the counselling services will be referred to the district team comprising of psychiatrist, psychologists and social workers under the District Mental Health Programme to provide further counselling and follow-up for the parents and students to help them to overcome any form of exam related stress.

Last year, psychological counselling was provided to 46,932 students who were unable to qualify in the 12th Standard exams. During counselling, 146 students (82 Boys and 64 Girls) were identified as high risk students who were further referred and followed up for continuous monitoring to ensure their well-being.

As many as 65,823 NEET aspirants with low cut off marks in the exam were also provided with counselling by the experts. The distress calls related to NEET and examination are being attended by the experts.