Hyderabad: TheTelangana Junior Doctors Association(T-JUDA) has launched a new mental health support platform,ED T-JUDA Connect, aimed at providing emotional and psychological assistance to medical students, residents, and junior doctors across the state-run medical colleges. The initiative, described as a confidential helpline, will be managed by trained peers and mentors who will offer counselling, referrals, and connections to professional mental health services. Highlighting the urgent need for such support, the association cited data from theNational Medical Commission(NMC), which revealed that 119 medical students — 64 pursuing MBBS and 55 postgraduates — have died by suicide in the past five years, many of them from Telangana. Talking to , Ajay Kumar Goud, General Secretary of T-JUDA, stated, “Doctors, while dedicated to healing others, often neglect their own well-being.” He added that long work hours, academic stress, social pressure, and emotional exhaustion have significantly impacted the mental health of the medical fraternity.ED T-JUDA Connect, where “ED” stands for emotional development, seeks to create a culture of care, confidentiality, and mutual support within the medical community. Dr Goud mentioned that recently, a medico who was preparing for his PG exams from Gandhi Medical College and had already given two attempts for NEET PG ended his life by consuming poison. The reason why he had taken the drastic step, the doctor mentioned that he was unable to cope with the extreme mental pressure of academic expectation, and such is the case for many medicos. “We have launched a portal or helpline to help the medicos. The system is for the students by the students. The class representatives and two volunteers from each batch will be a part of the desk. There will be around 25 people on board, and junior doctors will lead the whole ordeal. Junior doctors from the psychiatric department will also be involved. The helpdesk will identify the medicos who will need such help, we will talk to them, counsel them, analyse their mental condition, and finally refer them to the concerned psychiatrists.” “The whole process will be confidential, and the psychiatrists will be specialists outside of the department and the institute. We will upskill it so that all the medical colleges of Telangana can also access the benefit,” he added.