Left to right :D Usha Suryanarayan, Clinical Psychologist, Wockhardt Hospital, Vishal Bali, Vice President Wockhardt Hospital and Police Commissioner S.Mariswamy

Wockhardt Hospital and Heart Institute has launched "Project COPS", an innovative scheme for the police force to help them beat the stress and cope with the job pressure.

The Project COPS (Coping Of Pressure and Stress) launched here by Bangalore's Police Commissioner S.Mariswamy, is a series of Stress Management workshops conducted by a select faculty from Wockhardt Hospital consisting of Clinical Psychologists, Stress Counsellors and Cardiologists.

The project is a first-of-its-kind in the country for the police personnel to help overcome stress offered at free of cost by Wockhardt. The workshops will be conducted in batches of 50-75 policemen The first workshop was conducted for the first batch of 50 policemen at the Police headquarters here in Bangalore and is scheduled for completion in six months. The police personnel who are diagnosed for high stress conditions will be given immediate counselling by Wockhardt.

Police Commissioner Mariswamy said, "Stress is a police officer's hidden assailant". Law enforcement is considered to be amongst the most stressful occupations associated with high incidence of health problems such as strokes and heart attacks besides depression.”

According to Dr Usha Suryanarayan, Clinical Psychologist, Wockhardt Hospital, "The contents of the workshops have been designed after interactions with the policemen and the sessions will highlight situations in their daily life. The workshops will focus on understanding the psychological pressures of the policemen, giving them a platform for expression and helping them with methods to beat these pressures.”

"The objective of " Project COPS" is to focus and protect the overall health and life of policemen who protect the society. The project will not only help them lead better lives but also to enrich their family lives" said Vishal Bali, Vice President Wockhardt Hospital.