These awareness campaigns are aimed at informing about mental health problems in youth, specifically those of depression, suicidality and substance abuse.
WHO has defined life skills as “the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life”.
We plan to conduct life skills training programs for youth as well as teachers and parents for the purpose of wider dissemination.
Considering the shortage of psychiatrists in the country, general practitioners will be trained to pick up common symptoms and signs of depression, anxiety and substance use. They will also be trained in assessment of suicidality and sensitized about the first line of intervention.
Our goals are:
In the future, we intend to study the implementation and success of our strategies which we hope shall provide vital information about what really works in helping the youth with their mental health and preventing suicide, so that the program can be improved upon and be implemented more widely.