*Anahita Mukherji* *20 May 2011*
*MUMBAI *: Here is some good news for mental health activists battling suicide and depression in a city where stress levels are high and tolerance levels low. The Vandrevala Foundation, which has compiled data on all calls on its helpline, saw a dip in distress calls this year compared to 2010. For each month of 2011 till April, the number of suicidal callers, as well as those with mental health issues, is far less than the number of such callers in the corresponding month last year. The highest number of callers with mental health issues (541) and suicidal tendencies (46) was in January 2010, the month Mumbai witnessed a sudden spate of suicide among students. This January, the helpline received less than half that number of suicide calls. In all, the helpline received 73 suicide calls this year, but the number was more than double in the first four months of 2010. "The numbers are definitely encouraging," says Hyacinth Pereira, senior vice-president of the foundation. He feels awareness about mental health issues is increasing. "People now feel that help is just a phone call away. I feel this itself has resulted in a drop in suicide calls over the last one year," he says. Dr Rakesh Ghildiyal, president, Bombay Psychiatric Society (BPS), feels suicide prevention and awareness campaigns conducted by several organizations have focused not just on the issue, but on enhancing positive mental health. This, he feels, is possibly one of the reasons why the number of distress calls on the helpline has declined. "People are now talking more about depression and suicide. Earlier, if a child said he did not want to live any more, his parents would tell him to stop being silly. Today, they take it more seriously," Ghildiyal says. Mental health experts from BPS have also been involved in training those manning the Vandrevala Foundation helpline. The callers range from students in distress to lonely senior citizens and from women with marital problems to those who cannot deal with their children. The details of each call have been carefully documented. One such call was from a Class IX topper who lost the motivation to study in Class X. Another was from a 19-year-old boy who was going to appear for his Class XII exams, and was extremely stressed. On probing further, it was found that he had lost a loved one. He said it was not just the death of someone close, but the fact that the atmosphere in the family had changed after the death that was depressing him. He had even attempted suicide in the past, and was still unhappy with life. The counselor at the other end of the line discussed the very nature of life and its unpredictability with the boy and helped him realize that the fear of failure was, itself, causing him to fail. In several cases, a little bit of probing brought to the fore issues far deeper than the ones the caller initially discussed. One of the callers said she was extremely anxious about her 17-year-old son's lack of interest in academics. The boy himself called the helpline later in the day saying that his mother was the victim of physical and emotional abuse from his father and older brother. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-20/mumbai/29563844_1_mental-health-suicidal-tendencies-helpline -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/MhaNewsViewsIndia?hl=en ------------- Affiliated Groups : MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INDIA [email protected] Discussions on mental health law / policy / plan monitoring / human rights etc [email protected] India-specific news and views related to mental health [email protected] Information and support to carers of people with mental health issues [email protected] Mutual support and sharing of experiential knowledge, skills and social learning amongst peers
