PESHAWAR:Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s first state of the art Child Psychiatry section was inaugurated at Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) on Tuesday.
KTH Board of Governors Chairman Prof. Dr. Nadeem Khawar was the chief guest of the event. KMC Dean Prof. Dr. Mahmood Aurangzeb, Dr. Sadia Shafique member BOG MTI KTH, Prof. Dr. Idrees and Prof Dr. Khalid Mufti graced the event by their presence.
Chairman of Psychiatry Department Dr. Imran Khan said that more than 40 percent of our population is under the age of 18 years. They face different problems in their lives and at that time need help of mental health professionals.
He said that they will further work for capacity building and will expand their services for parental skills and teachers training. He further added that now a days our children are facing different problems like very tough competition in schools and studies, lack of playgrounds and physical games, excessive use of social media and screen time resulted in increase in childhood psychological problems. These services will address such issues of childhood and adolescence.
Prof. Dr. Nadeem Khawar expressed his satisfaction form the ongoing development in different sub-specialties. Being a Children Specialist, Prof. Dr. Nadeem Khawar showed particular interest in development of these services. He congratulated the team for their efforts and insured the support of BOG.
Dean, KMC Prof. Dr. Mahmud Aurangzeb said that both undergraduate and postgraduate students will benefit and their training will be improved in addition to services to the community.
Prof. Dr. Bashir Ahmad, who is a renowned Psycho-therapist, expressed his views and said that Drug Dependence is another huge problem in adolescence. He stressed on further expansion of services to patients with addiction problems.
Apart from them, senior retired professors of Psychiatry, Prof. Dr. Idrees and Prof. Dr. Khalid Mufti also expressed their views. They said that Child Psychiatry is the need of the time and further fellowship in this sub-specialty must be started soon.
In the end, Dr. Sadia Shafique, who is a BOG member and also a psychiatrist herself, thanked the KTH administration for its support in improving mental health facilities.