Who do you turn to when you need to talk about your mental health? Sure, there are several online resources (see left), but there is nothing that quite compares to human interaction. According to the National Mental Health Survey (2016), around 10.6% of the Indian population has some sort of mental disorder. However, we have only one psychiatric social worker per one lakh people. With increasing conversations on the topic, several events are creating safe spaces to fulfil this gap.
With a laid-back atmosphere that is conducive to open dialogue and anonymity (if required), they also bring together experts and public, foster peer-to-peer support and go beyond the medical method of treating mental illnesses. Jhilmil Breckenridge, co-founder of New Delhi-based Bhor Trust says, “Right now, it is almost fashionable to say one has a mental health issue. We need to be mindful and take away this ‘glamorous’ tag from it, and focus on the real issues through these meetups.”
Soul Slam
In 2016, when Abhinav Arora — then an engineering student at Manipal University — wanted to tackle his social anxiety, he decided to go big, by organising a slam poetry meetup in Bengaluru. “By putting their experiences into a poetry format, we wanted participants to process their emotions creatively, while also presenting it interestingly to an audience. Back then, we had the tagline ‘Be yourself’, with no mention of mental health, although that is what we wanted to initiate conversations about,” he says. Now they are far more explicit about their focus — their latest event in Kolkata was called ‘The Mental Health Edition’. “The kind of stories that were shared changed dramatically when we gave it this title. They were more personal and raw,” he says. Follow their Facebook page for details on upcoming events in Chennai, Mumbai, Pune and more.
Honest Conversations over Coffee
Social media has us all connected, but real conversations are at a premium. Delhi-based Brand and digital consultant and educator Saurabh Parmar felt this keenly, owing to his personal experiences and after talking to a few students. He says, “We all go through tough times and there is a mental dialogue going on in most of our heads. But instead of sharing it with our friends, our conversations are more small talk or sharing highlights of our life, the way we do on social media. Despite being more informed than any other generation before us, we are failing to recognise that honest, heartfelt conversations are a basic human need.”
So Parmar started ‘Honest Conversations over Coffee’, a “non judgemental space where we have people from different backgrounds, age groups, genders and sexualities , political and social opinions, can have open conversations”. While the actual format itself is proprietary, he shares a few rules: no phones, no discussion on jobs and designations, and no “BS”. Their fifth edition will take place next weekend in Hauz Khas.
It’s OK To Talk
This Goa-based group, run by the non-profit Sangath, believes in breaking the mental health stigma by talking about it. Earlier this year, they conducted events like Merchants of Madness in New Delhi, and The Inside Story (a two-day experience on mental health) in Mumbai. Pattie Gonsalves, who leads the public engagement initiative, says, “Apart from these large public events, we also have a more focussed engagement called the Young Advocates Group. We do a lot of training with them and then they go out and run circles, be it art or music, in their colleges.” It’s OK To Talk is supported by PRIDE, Public Health Foundation of India, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicial Medicine, Harvard Medical School and the Wellcome Trust, UK.
The Listening Circle
As a caregiver for a family member with mental illness, Namarita Kathait wanted to create a support group for people like her. “We wanted a very non-hierarchical approach — there is no ‘expert’ telling you the ‘right’ way to do things. We simply meet, talk and empathise with the issues each person faces on a daily basis. It can be very cathartic,” says the Delhi-based co-founder of Bhor Foundation, who also has a day job in the publishing industry. Since the first meetup in March this year, the events have expanded to different parts of the city, and “hopefully will be held across the country too”. Recently, they also launched a circle for anxiety and depression.
Mind Cafe
“We wanted to put mental health on par with physical illnesses — you don’t wait to go to the clinic when you have a broken leg, so why should you wait to seek help for your mental well-being?” asks Dr Sumathi Chandrasekaran, a counselling psychologist and founder of this newly-launched space in Chennai. Walk in, sign a consent form, and for a donation of ₹250, you can spend 45 minutes to an hour talking to a counsellor over a cup of coffee — much like you would chat with a friend at a cafe. A psychologist will also be on hand, to identify specific issues and recommend appropriate treatment if required.
