Annual Report2012-2013

Second place collage competition

• The department of psychiatry of K. S. Hegde college , had organised collage competition as part of the International day against Drug Abuse, on June 26th 2012.deepti and Refana Lobo of I B A participated and won second place in the collage competition

Reel Therapy Workshop

• A Reel Therapy workshop was conducted by the Cadabam’s Group of Psycho- Social Rehabilitation Centre on 2nd November in the J.S.S Auditorium. As a part of their 20th year celebration, Dr. Nitin Shukla, one of the youngest Psychiatrists in India and Dr. B.R Madhukar an eminent and visiting consultant Psychiatrist at the Cadabam’s group inaugurated this workshop . The resource person for the workshop was Dr. Birgit Wolz, an American Psychotherapist and Reeltherapist, practicing in Loch Lomond, California. She described the use of Cinema Therapy which can be effectively incorporated along with other therapeutic measures to treat clients. She emphasized on the impact that movies can have on the viewers and on certain scenes that have the tendency to grasp our attention more than the others. Dr. Brigit Wolz screened few movie clips and made us reflect about what the character, sound or scene had to offer. The workshop was indeed a great insight to all professionals as well as students aspiring to become future therapists.

Clinical exposure and training: Manasa Institute of Mental Health

• During the Vth semsester vacations, the final year students of psychology were given an opportunity to receive clinical training and exposure as part of the abnormal psychology curriculum.

• The training programme was offered by Manasa Institute of Mental Health,Shimoga, which is part of the Manasa Trust started by Dr. Ashok Pai. The trust includes the Manasa Institute of Mental Health Education, Manasa Nursing Home, Manasadhara Rehabilitation Centre and Spoorthi physiotherapy centre and other facilities.

• On the 29th of October 2012, eleven final year students of psychology travelled to Shimoga for a three day clinical exposure trip to Manasa Nursing Home. We were welcomed at the hostel by Ms. Shwetha, a clincal psychologist of the hospital. On the 30th we were given an orientation on the Manasa Trust and a talk on the field of clinical psychology by Dr. Ganesh Rao following which Ms.Shwetha briefed us about the functioning of the hospital and the treatment of patients. We were then instructed to go out into different wards and interact with the patients and their families. This gave us tremendous insight into the variety and intensity of mental disorders and their symptoms. We were able to understand the problems more clearly and empathize with the families.

• In the afternoon, after lunch we were directed to 'Spoorthi' therapy centre. Here we witnesses and learnt the functioning of aversion therapy for substance abuse and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy administered by Dr. Radha Prabhu. Dr. Radha also gave us a lecture on the usage of this therapy for spastic children.

• The next day, we were assigned to spend the day in 'Manasadhara' rehabilitation centre under the guidance of Dr. Usha, here we interacted with numerous patients who required more long term care and observed their living conditions and routine activities. We obtained a deeper understanding in care giving for the mentally ill. The rehabilitation centre also houses several cases of mental retardation who have been undergoing treatment for years together. During our interaction we received first hand information about the nature of mental illness and its treatment from the patients themselves which was a pleasant surprise. Some patients of bipolar and delusional disorders were well aware of their condition and cooperated willingly with the care givers. This centre focuses on self care and constructive activity through creative art and craft classes, yoga, walks and physical exercises implemented through a regimental time table. After lunch, we returned to the hospital and were given a lecture on case history taking format and functions by Dr. Ganesh Rao.

• On the last day of our training we were given the task of taking the case histories

of new

• patients, this put all our training and skills to the test as we has to practically implement all that we had learnt. By this time we were more familiar with the various disorders and were able to identify symptoms while talking to the patients and their informants. When we reassembled as a group we were able to make probable diagnosis of cases such as disorganised schizophrenia, paranoia, post par tum depression, etc. After this we revisited the therapy centre where Dr. Radha gave us the opportunity to use Cognitive Behaviour Therapy on a child patient and her mother.

• The same evening we were called back to the hospital to witness the procedure of electro-convulsive therapy used only for patients suffering from severe mental illness. After which we were addressed by Dr. Priya Pai, daughter of the founder of Manasa Trust and resident psychotherapist in the nursing home. She spoke to us about the importance and need for clinical psychologists in the world today in the identification and treatment of mental illness. She highlighted various career options and institutions for higher studies. This was extremely beneficial to us.

• We returned back to Mangalore in the morning of 2nd November. We are extremely grateful to the college and the department of Psychology for giving us this opportunity.

Visit To Aloysian Boys Home• The psychology students of second year visitedAloysian boys home,

Ullal on Saturday the 15th of December, 2012. These students currently studying child psychology, conducted a number of activities for children, ranging in age from 4yrs to 15 yrs . The two hours spent at the Home saw a delightful union of the Psychology students and the children of the Home with one conducting and both participating in the activities like Bomb in the City, Dumb-charades, passing the ball etc. Prizes were distributed to the. While the visit was a part of the curriculum of the students, it also was a method to sensitize them towards those who are disadvantaged and to instill in them the virtues of love and sympathy to the people around them, which is very important in the formation of the psychologists of tomorrow. For most, this visit has been the first experience of it’s kind, and are very thankful for having had such an opportunity .

BANGALORE UNIVERSITY FEST 2012 -runners up

• The students of the Psychology Department of St. Aloysius College, actively took part in Ahana 2012, a two-day state level psychology Fest by the Bangalore University on 19th and 20th of December,2012. The fest was held in the Jnana Bharati campus of the University. Eight of the third year students and two of the second year students made a team and participated in the fest.

• The day 1 of fest began with the registrations and the ice breaking session followed by various competitions like quiz, mad-ad, street play etc. As many as ten to fifteen colleges from Karnataka took part in the fest including the students pursuing their Masters in Psychology. The day 2 of the fest included activities like creative writing, funk from junk, painting, dance trance etc. The participants interested in photography competition were asked to capture emotions within the campus and hence, we witnessed a number of participants running around the campus to click emotions. The fest was concluded with colourful performances and the prize distribution ceremony where, Andrew Cecil and Mauvin Sequiera won gold medals for Picture perfect( a photography event), Deepthi Kamath, Malini and Indu P.S won gold medals for funk from junk(a model making competition) and a team of five students namely Andrew, Indu, Artha,Radhika and Deepthi won gold medals for make a break (a mad ad event). Also, Laxmi Shetty, Srijina Rajendran and Abhijith Nair actively participated in all the intellectual events such as twenty plenty, quiz etc. Over all it was a fruitful experience for the entire team and we thank our department and college for giving us this opportunity.

Christmas celebration

• The department of psychology organized a Christmas celebration on 17th of December at 3.30 in the evening. The budding psychologists were informed well in advance to bring their gifts. The joy of Christmas was celebrated through singing Christmas carols. Hadley of 2nd BA dressed as Santa Claus distributed the gifts to the students. The Christmas cake was cut and given to the students. The program ended at 4.30, happily,with everyone having their gifts from their secret Santa.

St. Aloysius College wins Psychospectrum

• The psychology students of St. Aloysius college won the overall championship of the Psychology fest, Psychospectrum held at St. Agnes college

• Satshya Tharien of I BA won the first place for paper presentation.

• Marissa Menezes of I BA won the second place in Turncoat.

• Hadley D’souza of II BA won the best personality award.• Laxmi Shetty of III BA and Raina Jane D’mello of II BA

won the first place in Quiz.