New Delhi, being the home of our organisation, is where we began our journey towards bringing the issue of mental health into the forefront of community health and public health systems. The heterogeneous population of New Delhi provided us the opportunity to work with diverse groups of people across various social, economic and cultural domains.
A survey study, “State of mental health in Delhi: Prevalence of psychiatric morbidity, subjective well being, and patterns of help-seeking behavior among the general population of Delhi” was undertaken by Maanvardhan Social India Foundation with the support of the Planning Commission in the year 2008. The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity was found to be 7.6% amongst the population of Delhi and with respect to subjective wellbeing, people in Delhi report high levels of distress and poor subjective wellbeing both in quantitative analysis and focused group discussions.
Due to our extensive work in the field we were keenly aware of the burden of mental health disorders in Delhi even prior to this study and we began with mobilising communities through mass awareness campaigns for mental health. The aim of these campaigns was to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, encourage people to reach out for support and also inform them about the various avenues for support which are available to them.
To ensure these campaigns were a success we gathered the support of prominent stakeholders from different sectors of the society who spoke out about normalising mental health and publicly endorsed the issue of mental health and well being. We used different engaging and entertaining mediums for raising awareness of mental health such as an art exhibition, rock show, street theatre and other public events.
Programme with Women and Child Care Institutions
By creating awareness we purposefully created a demand for mental health services and we realised we need to cater to this demand by making mental health services accessible and available for all specially the most vulnerable. In 2011 we plugged in our mental health services model to the Nirmal Chhaya complex which is a women and child care institution run by the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Delhi. We felt that ensuring someone’s security and well being does not only entail providing them a safe physical space but also a larger ecosystem of psychosocial support that provides them with a safe emotional space. The positive impact of this intervention was acknowledged by all the stakeholders and in 2020 Maanvardhan Social India Foundation was given the opportunity to replicate the same plug in model in all the institutions run by WCD for children in need of care and protection and children in conflict with law. Our plug-in model constitutes establishing a mental health unit at each institution manned by a team of qualified and trained counselling psychologists, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists. Our mental health services include providing the residents with regular one on one counselling/therapy sessions and psychiatric support. Our psychologists also conduct regular group sessions and workshops for the residents to prevent mental health concerns from developing or progressing along with promoting adaptive coping, resilience, and positive mental health amongst the residents. The aim of this multipronged approach is not just ensuring the wellbeing of the resident while they are residing within the institutions but also ensuring successful reintegration into the society once they leave.