Ali Fazal: Contacting experts to help doctors with PTSD

Ali Fazal

Having been on war footing over the past one-and-a-half years as India battles the pandemic, the medical community has had little to no time to focus on its mental well-being. Realising that their emotional health is crucial to get the country out of the clutches of the destructive second wave, Ali Fazal has been conducting video calls with doctors and nurses across India to boost their morale.

Besides checking in on them, the actor is guiding those seeking therapy to psychiatrists, thus ensuring that symptoms of trauma or depression do not go unchecked. "Much like war soldiers, doctors and medical personnel might develop severe post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] once this is all over. In a nation that continues to stigmatise mental illnesses, Ali wants to ensure that proper care and support are provided to the frontline workers. He reaches out to them through social media, interacting with them and their families twice or thrice every week," reveals a source.

For Fazal, the objective of the initiative is to build a robust support system for the Covid-19 warriors. "I want to underline the importance of caring for our doctors, nurses, and other frontline workers, during and after the second wave of the pandemic. They are witnessing trauma first-hand. I have been getting in touch with experts to help them [deal] with PTSD," says the actor.

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