Batch of 2002 finished her undergrad from IRT Perundurai Medical College and internship from CMC Vellore. She did her masters in Community Medicine from Sri Ramachandra Medical University from 2013 to 2016. Till 2018 she was working as Assistant Professor in a private medical college and then joined as a PHC Medical Officer in Kalambur Block PHC, Tiruvanamalai district. From 2018 to 2021 she worked as Program Officer in Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Program, a 3000 Crore rupees program, funded by World Bank, which is a successor of erstwhile Tamil Nadu Health System Project (TNHSP).
She played the lead role of administrator of Project Management Unit in addition to looking after Quality wing and Operational Research teams of TNHSRP, a crucial role in prominent activities of TNHSRP such as Quality accreditation of close to 300 Government institutions, initiation of NCD – WHO STEPS survey, Creation of Emergency Departments (ED) in Medical Colleges, RCH Household survey, conduction of various World Bank Missions and workshops including the prestigious launch program of TNHSRP by the then Chief Minister of the State in March 2020.
She was also physically trained from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health during a 11-day training program on Improving the Quality of Health Services funded by TNHSRP in October 2019. She worked as Assistant Program Officer in National Health Mission, for Mental Health Program from 2021 Dec to 2022 June. She kicked off the weekly program of “Mana Nala Viyazhan” (Mental Health Thursday similar to Vaccination Wednesday) that is being conducted in all Primary g Secondary Care Institutions across the state with a vision of fighting the stigma against seeking Mental health care and to spread the awareness of priority towards Mental health showcased by our government.
The primitive brain – amygdala’s (aka lizard brain) function is that of flight or fight or freeze. Stone age man’s major brain function was that of amygdala’s for his survival as he was frequently exposed to threat of his life by a larger predator in response to which he had to yell or scream his lungs out along with other associated physiological responses. Fast forward to now, our lives have had changes multi folds and after generations of technological advances, we don’t face life threatening events day in day out anymore to the extent that one can easily spend his entire life without encountering a situation where death is staring right in front of us. Does that mean amygdala stopped functioning and shrunk into a vestigial organ in current ages (like appendix)?
Answer is No. Amygdala still does that same work every time we are exposed to a threat, only difference is that we now are exposed to emotional threat. Everyday. Are they as serious as life threats that we humans were exposed to, thousands and thousands of years ago? Obviously not, our threats are much simpler now, one need not run away faster than the predators of emotions (triggers), but one still needs to fight them. Similarly do we need to fight to the extent that we have to scream our lungs out? Of course not, we can always choose not to, Yes! You read it right, Yelling is a choice, a conscious one at that not to use it. There are sharp tools and instruments laying around the house we choose not to use it as a tool to show power (coz we know we aren’t kings anymore and there is no kingdoms to be snatched away from us). In the same lines, just coz there is an option of yelling at the other person (usually who is of a lesser rank/ post/ cadre/ age/ salary) doesn’t mean we have to create an imaginary portal and impersonate that of a primitive man who happened to stumble upon a violent fox & howl louder than the fox to show his higher power (though he inherently knew he is actually not).
Yelling is not the ability or power to handle the given situation, yelling doesn’t make someone a better leader or manager 1. Raising your voice at the right level and the right time for a right amount of time is the skill of a great leader. There are 2 types of yelling, Professional yelling & Personal. In Professional yelling there is a strong vision, there are emotions but it is well controlled and never lost, no profane or personal words used that would insult the other person’s character. The desired outcome of the listener is inspiration with an edge of bewilderment. If you’ve left them emotionally shaken, or confused, you’ve yelled unprofessionally. It should be a motivating, clear, and positive. If you see the other person/ persons depressed, hating their jobs and didn’t want to work anymore, then it’s time to accept your failure in communication. Your yelling was not done for a betterment but it was done to take control of the other person’s character (abuse of power). If not for doctors nobody else will best know the beauty (inevitable pain) of failing at a given task (saving lives) how much ever we try, at times. It is okay to fail!
It is true that, yelling release the negative (fear) energy off a person’s system, but the amount and extent of damage it does to the person or persons who are at the receiving end is completely uncalled for. When we’re in survival mode, we’re not thinking about creative solutions as effectively2. Brain’s limbic system gets activated, blood pressure rises, breathing becomes shallow, and muscles tense up. Since our history factors in, we can start making assumptions. Adrenaline makes everything go faster, and our attention narrows and one starts yelling. When the opponent decide to not yell and ends up holding anger in, the same physiological process takes place. He might not be making a lot of noise, but he is far from calm or looking to improve the situation. The chain of reactions it causes in the minds of those who are exposed to repetitive yelling can vary from increases in activity of amygdala to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Childhood Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD, translates to reliving one’s childhood abuse). As we have know it, as long as amygdala is active evolved brain work like empathy, love, kindness, critical thinking, reasoning cannot be tapped out and the victim ends up making more mistakes and the cycle of yelling repeats.
Now the readers may feel that I am dramatizing something as simple as yelling but, what we try to ignore as a creamy layer of professions is that, it’s not simple, it is deep rooted, movie directors may portray it as heroism, in administrative language it may be considered passion, in field of medicine & science it is the lack of balance in handling one’s own emotions that has a potential to harm the victim unless it’s a professional yell. It is definitely humane to yell, but it’s definitely also has to be professional.
WHAT IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO IT?
A 3 Minute, 3 most critical conversations3 that can be done instead of a “Hair Dryer Treatment” (yelling in front of patients as if a hair dryer is switched on the others one’s face should be avoided at all costs and remember to invite the other person to a place with few onlookers):
- One Minute Goal Setting: Outlining with the employee specific goals, benchmarks.
- One Minute Praisings: Catching someone doing something right, and recognizing them for it.
- One Minute Reprimands/ Disapproval: Catching unproductive or negative behavior immediately and explaining to the employee what the consequences have been.
Let loose the yell, following the best practices above, within the parameters of each one-minute conversation goal and watch what it adds. If done right, one’ll be surprised how much more productive your teamwork will be.