Centre dealt with addiction, romance among youth
.jpg "Niloufer Hospital to shut YUVA")
The centre was established in 2002 for two days and went on to become fully operational from 2006
Hyderabad: The YUVA centre at Niloufer Hospital is being forced to shut down as there have been fewer walk-ins after it was shifted from the old building to the new block in the out-patient department.
In the old building, an entire floor was dedicated for the youth information centre and it had a 12-member team. This has been brought down to two members.
The centre had close to 50 to 80 youths from united Andhra Pradesh visiting every day with problems of addiction, sexual problems, romantic relationships and also issues of mental health like depression, anxiety and familial stress. This has drastically dropped to only five to 10 youth a day.
A senior doctor on condition of anonymity said, “In the last one and a half years, the centre has been totally neglected and the functioning departments have been closed down.There was a special outreach program for the schools which has been completely dismantled, which is not good as the centre was popular amongst youth who freely walked in and discussed their problems.”
Now with the centre being situated in two rooms in the out-patient block, lack of privacy and a separate set-up for the counsellor to sit with them has become issues.
Another source said, “It’s a children’s hospital and when adolescents walk in, they have to wait in queue with families around, making them feel awkward. Most of them see this environment and do not make a out-patient card. Earlier the environment was very relaxed as they could walk in and there were no families around to question them. Even if they waited in queue, it comprised adolescent boys and girls and invariably they respected each other’s privacy. But that has completely gone now. Those who come for one session are not revisiting because of the environment.”
The centre was established in 2002 for two days and went on to become fully-operational from 2006. The staff has now been recalled and there have not been any new appointments.
Superintendent Dr Suresh Kumar said, “It is operating in the OP department as it had to be shifted to the new block. There are walk-ins but due to lack of staff the outreach program in schools has been closed.”
Shortage of space hit Yuva
Due to shortage of space and pressure from other departments wanting more space, a case is being made out that the YUVA department is not functioning.
A senior doctor in Niloufer Hospital said, “The NRHM funds were not utilised in the last one-and-a-a-half years due to which the staff was called back. Similarly, the Women and Child Welfare department found that there were no activities being carried out due to which they didn’t want to keep their staff here. Due to that reason too walkins have reduced.”
The activities, both in the hospital and outside, were to educate the youth and also to make them approach the centre in case of problems. With these activities coming to a halt, there are no ways in which they can reach out to the youth at the ground level.
A senior doctor explained, "The furniture has been moved to other departments and so are the electronic gadgets which were procured to give visual presentations to the youth. These steps are an indication that they are not serious about the program and do not want to carry it forward."
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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