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Mongsentong Longkumer
Dimapur | July 15
As mental health becomes a pressing issue for the state and society to deal with, NGOs and groups who are at the forefront of it are crucial towards bridging the gap of accessing medical facilities and consultations for persons suffering from various conditions.
For Rini Gose, Director of Serendip Guardians, an NGO based in Dimapur, she shares the challenges, short-comings and prospects for the State and its people to The Morung Express in this last of a three-part series related to conversations on mental health.
To start with, Gose says that the World Health Organisation (WHO) conceptualizes mental health as a “state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”
She adds, “Mental health is about our emotional and social well being. A lot of us when we talk about our mental health, we talk about the mental illness aspect of it but I think it encompasses many other different aspects of our well being as well.”
Gose mentions that they have been operating Serendip Guardians for nearly eight years since 2014. “The whole purpose of it was to make a difference for the scenario of mental health in Nagaland,” she says.
She observed a considerable shift in people’s perceptions from the initial stages. “The pandemic was a huge fact in terms of people being aware of mental health while getting educated and realising the need to know more about mental health but I think I was seeing that shift a few years even before 2020 as well,” she noted.
“Initially the scenario used to be very different. We hardly saw any clients walking into our office by themselves but that changed in the last four years as individuals began coming all by themselves through the help of social media,” she adds.
Serendip Guardians caters to people with common and severe mental health issues. “We do a lot of counselling programmes, gate-keeping programmes on suicide prevention, working with Church leaders and pastors on child mental health. We also do a lot of sessions with young people who are going through their personal issues,” she mentioned.
Women more receptive to seeking professional help
Gose observed that women were more open to seeking remedial help, while for men, “it’s the whole patriarchal mindset of trying to deal with problems on their own.”
With regard to age groups, it ranged between, 25-40. “The younger generation are more open and upfront about seeking help and breaking the stigma around mental health whereas the older generation, there is so much of stigma around it still,” she said.
The organisation has conducted sessions in Dimapur, Kohima and Phek as of now. They do have clients coming in from different parts of Nagaland as well. In addition, they conducted virtual sessions with people from Kiphire and Mon during the lockdown.
Hurdles to treatment & care
When it comes to tackling mental health issues, privately initiated organisations were in need of financial funding or grants. However Gose remarked that these were non-existent in the State. This may be due to the lack of data and scientific research being conducted, she supposed. “As an organisation it has hampered our goals of expanding our operations into other districts,” she informed.
Nagaland is also the only State in India which still does not have a functioning medical college as of today. Besides this, the Guwahati High Court, Kohima Bench had on June 29 directed the State Government to highlight steps taken in constituting the State Mental Health Authority board.
There are also gaps in terms of accessibility to medical experts and professionals for people in the state, she commented. “We need to normalise the practice of people seeking professional help for their mental illnesses, whether it may be therapy or other diagnoses, while also making it more accessible.”
Stigma is a major deterrent that prevents people from seeking help about their mental health problems, which may affect their job and relationships with people, she said.
Breaking stigmas and creating safe spaces
“I think the issue with mental health is something which will always be a challenge in the future. The point is to have conversations around it, break stigmas, making people educated about it,” Gose proposed.
She said, “it is impossible to pin-point a single factor that causes mental health issues as it encapsulates the society as a whole.” Gose posited that the rise in the number of drug addiction and substance abuse cases in the state is contributing to mental health problems.
In addition, she stated that phone addiction and social media have also been major factors affecting the mental state of being, as there is a lot of online bullying and harassment.
She advocated creating safe spaces through which people could talk about their problems and issues without the fear of being judged and stigmatised.
For anyone who wants to reach out, Serendip Guardians will be conducting mental health camps every third Saturday of the month at Government Higher Secondary School, Chümoukedima.
This is the last of a three part series
