At the outset, I congratulate our beloved outgoing president and his exceptional team for their successful tenure, where we saw a lot of new members joining the society, almost hitting a double century. Will seek the guidance and support of our vibrant president, Dr. Somashekar Bijjal, in future. I wholeheartedly thank all the IPSKC members for choosing me for this prestigious position.
I would like to repeat certain things again here, at least for those who are new to IPSKC, especially the student delegates. Ours is one of the oldest state branches, established in 1968. We are a growing family with over 800 members. We have won the best state branch award 11 times, a feat that no other state has achieved. We have >ten mandatory activities that include this conference, CMEs, newsletter publication, quiz for UGs and PGs, debate & essay for school children, teacher awareness program, cricket (as part of CME), and so on. I can spend the whole day talking about our activities. In short, if you refer to article II of the MOA of IPSKC constitution, we have been actively doing almost all those activities proposed in there.
With the kind of manpower we have, with a little more commitment, we can take it to newer heights. First and foremost is the membership. Those who are still not members, come forward and become members and encourage all your junior colleagues and students to become members. With the number comes all other strengths, and you will have a backup for all your activities; you are not alone. Knowingly or unknowingly, we are all working towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4, and to an extent, 9. We know that 3 is for health and well-being, 4 is for quality education and 9 is for innovation (research). With the support and workforce of a professional organization like IPSKC, we can do such activities better. So, let’s continue the membership drive and make our society bigger and stronger.
We all know that our editor, Dr Vijaykumar Harbishettar has been working tirelessly and has fast forwarded the process of indexing of our journal. During my tenure, whatever advocacy and support are needed, I will be with him. He has plans and goals for the next couple of years, including an intense peer review training of members and PubMed indexing. Good quality peer reviewing means good quality papers. Also, with so many PGs in the state, publishing their thesis asap has to be prioritized. What should happen is, when thesis topic is planned, it should be planned with publication in mind. Rest will follow and will facilitate PubMed indexing. If PubMed indexing happens, ours will be the first state journal with PubMed indexing. Having the giant NIMHANS and many medical colleges with good NIRF ranking and its efficient staff, (NIRF rank released), it is not difficult to achieve this. Let’s support Dr Harbi in all possible ways and give him our best.
The other issue in our day-to-day practice is the implementation of MHRB rules. Though the intentions of MHRB are good, the implementation has been unclear. Some of the issues faced are ECT decision for children, appointing nominated representative and advanced directive, responses regarding homeless mentally ill admitted, by the district social welfare office, etc. I am planning to discuss the matter with the relevant IPSKC committees and communicate our concerns and possible solutions to the Central Mental Health Authority. We will have to take it from there to go forward.
Further, NMC has now mandated OSCE as a part of PG examination. We conducted a trial workshop yesterday on OSCE during the pre-conference. We are happy to conduct the ‘train the trainer’ workshops across the state for faculty as well, as an innovative IPSKC activity, on how to prepare OSCE stations, while we continue the PG workshops.
Wellness of fellow psychiatrists is another priority. We are already promoting sports activities. A key component of wellness is financial awareness. Conducting an exclusive CME on investing and trading is something that I wish to plan for all IPSKC members. We have some experienced investors in our society to share their wisdom.
You all know that we have recently come up with a YouTube channel. All our innovative educational and awareness activities can be uploaded into it for a wider dissemination of knowledge. I request members to send the videos of activities that they undertake in their area of interest. It is very convenient to record even a small piece of information in a video. It can be something like demonstrating empathy through an interview for our PGs, or roleplays demonstrating insights against myths, stigma, and superstitions for the public. You can be as creative as you are, but remember the IPSKC logo in the backdrop. Such a video can be emailed to ipskcoffice@gmail.com, and after a check, it will be uploaded. We can also consider forming a social media cell, as we have many enthusiastic writers in the society, who actively contribute to newspapers and magazines.
Lastly, these days, everywhere we talk about going green. So the other thing that some of us want is to digitalize the processes of our society so that we can minimize paper. The key change will be a common member login area to upload confidential documents. Quotations are being taken to see what works out. It will be taken up in the EC for a decision.
With all your love, support, involvement, and blessings, I am sure I can deliver what has been planned for the year. I consider myself fortunate to be a part of such a high-spirited and outstanding association of like-minded mental health professionals. I conclude it here, thanking the members again for giving me this opportunity.
Long live IPSKC.
Dr Anil Kumar M N
President – IPSKC