While COVID-19 infections have fallen in Kashmir, the pandemic has left scores of families in the grip of mental health issues in the valley, which has “45% of adult population, around 1.8 million, suffering from some form of mental distress” after three decades of conflict according to a 2020 study titled ‘Mental Health in Kashmir: Conflict to COVID-19’.
In response, the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Srinagar (IMHANS), is launching from Thursday an initiative called “Kath Bath” (a conversation) aimed at offering “psycho-social help” to families that have suffered COVID-related deaths.
The initiative has been necessitated by cases like that of Nazima Jan (name changed), a working woman from Srinagar’s Hawal area. Ms. Jan contracted COVID-19 at her workplace during the second wave in 2021. By the time she tested positive for the virus, her father-in-law and mother-in-law were also affected. She survived but both her parents-in-law died.
