Mental health, suicide prevention helplines in Pune

Prajakta Joshi

Pune, July 17, 2020: Sunday afternoon was disturbing for people across the country, as the news of the death of film actor Sushant Singh Rajput by suicide shook everyone. The incident underlined that mental health cannot be taken for granted, and constant support must be available to those who are in distress.

Since the beginning of COVID-19 induced lockdown, several helplines have emerged in the city to listen to and support those facing any kind of mental or emotional distress. A few helplines that have been working towards the cause for years have also been active, ready to listen.

“A helpline provides basic counselling support, which can act as a first aid to those who need counselling,” said Dr Krishna Kadam, Senior Psychiatrist at Maharashtra Institute of Mental Health and Sassoon Hospital. 

Man-Samvad helpline by Sassoon Hospital 020-26127331

Kadam is also the coordinator for the Man-Samvad helpline run by Sassoon Hospital. “We started the helpline on March 31, after the lockdown has been imposed. We felt it was urgently needed, as confinement inside homes would make it difficult for people to see counsellors in person. While we initiated the helpline for queries associated with COVID-19 and lockdown, we have been receiving all kinds of distress calls, and we plan to continue with the helpline,” Kadam said.

Man-Sanwad is a 24-hour helpline, and four counsellors, male as well as female, with different specialisations are available at all times. If the problem faced by the caller seems severe, he/she is called to the hospital for further consultation.

Connecting NGO Distress Helpline 9922004305 / 9922001122

This helpline is operational daily between 12 pm to 8 pm. Apart from the helpline, there is also an email ID one could write to [email protected]

Connecting NGO has been operating distress helplines for several years. “We listen to the calls with non-judgemental, non-advising, confidential responses. If we find that someone needs a psychiatrist, we refer them to the professionals from our referral list,” said Liyaan Sataravala, Programme Coordinator at Connecting NGO.

“However, since the lockdown began, we have also begun getting more emails, along with a busy helpline. This could be because with everyone being stuck at home, confidentiality may become an issue. We used to get an average of 15 emails every month. In May, the number increased to 26,” Sataravala said.

She added, “The aim is to inform people that they don’t need to reach that breaking point if they want to give us a call or to write to us. It’s okay not to be okay.”

Karve Institute of Social Service (KISS) helpline 9850328350, 9821066077, 9604552698, 9820714876, 9881687454

At the Karve Institute of Social Service (KISS) as well, a multidisciplinary team of four counsellors is present at all times to address the different issues faced by the callers.

Prof. Chetan Diwan, Chairperson, the institutes Centre for Mental Health and Disabilities, said, “The main thing that we do at the helpline is listening without suggesting anything immediately. Listening is the most important part of providing support.”

He added, “Since our helpline was launched during the COVID-19 lockdown, apart from the other distress calls, we also received several calls about starvation. We tried to connect these people to the local administrative authorities to help resolve their problems.”