Pune: Co-experience is important to understand mental health issues: Dr. Mohan Agashe
Pune, 12th December 2022: “To understand a person’s mental health we have to understand them and their situation first. Until that happens, we’ll not be able to help them. While making a film, the director will always say to get a good shot, the actor has to understand the situation and then act. Same goes with mental health. Co-experience is an important part of working in mental health,” opined psychiatrist and senior actor Dr. Mohan Agashe.
Agashe was speaking during a special film festival organized to mark the silver jubilee year of Schizophrenia Awareness Association (SAA) held at National Film Archives of India, Law College Road on Sunday. Film-maker Sunil Sukthankar, Entrepreneur Krishnakumar Goyal, PM Shah Foundation Director Advocate Chetan Gandhi, ‘Loksatta’ editor Mukund Sangoram, former SAA President Amrit Bakshi and SAA President Abhay Kele were present on the occasion.
Dr. Agashe said, “All the best schools operated for special kids in the world are established by parents of such kids, but schools opened through commercial means are not running well. The reason behind that is empathy. Until we know the condition of a mentally ill person, we cannot do anything for them.”
Abhay Kele informed about the organization and other awareness-raising activities and also informed about commencing of a project named as SAARC offering residential facility for people suffering from schizophrenia near Kamshet.
In the first session of the festival, 11 short films on mental illness and health were screened, while in the second session, the national award winning film ‘Devrai’ produced by ‘SAA’ was screened. Vinaya Desai moderated the program.
