i am so excited!
i was waiting for this particular workshop since more than a month, half thanks to my ‘personal’ interest in suicide and partly due to my book on suicide.
it was nothing like i expected it to be.
i expected it to be more compassionate focussed, more people centred rather than a scientific mish mash of techniques and statistics. i am not saying the training was useless, it was a good introductory training to suicide prevention.
but it did not stand upto my expectations. i had expected more of it.
apart from it, what shocked me today was that most therapists and psychologists are not given this ultimate toolkit in their therapy box which can help them save lives! it clearly highlights the failure in our education system.
i know about this because most attendants (in fact all except me) were psychologists, who didnt know much about how to deal with suicidal people.
one theory i have for why they dont teach suicide prevention to therapists is because no one benefits out of it, in a direct financial manner. which is truly despicable and utterly sad.
note that i could be completely wrong, and it could just be the absence of awareness.
its truly sad and shocking, all the same, that the same mental health professionals we trust to deal with our deepest insecurities cannot handle our suicidal thoughts, which are increasing steadily in the world today.
to make you understand how big a deal this is, for most people aged 15-29 years, death by suicide is the 4th common cause of death.
isnt it a big deal? i dont know about you, but this statistic scares me so much, that i didnt need to look it up after the workshop, it was engraved in my mind.
i remember i came up with a startup idea to help people who were suicidal.
the biggest issue i see when a person is suicidal is no access to therapy. even they have access to therapy, money is a big issue.
(back then, i had no idea that even therapists have no fugging clue how to deal with suicidal ideations. this is something i learned today.)
so basically, to make sure they didnt face the money crunch when they went to therapy, i charged them a monthly membership fees for the month, and then that money would be adjusted in the membership fees along with remaining therapy fees at end of month.
in the light of new information regarding no psychologist having any clue on how to talk to suicidal people, i will have to pivot. more on that later.
i had no idea this all work was still remaining to be done in the mental health field, everytime i try exploring the state of mental health in india, i find we are worse than where we were earlier.
i dont where to start. but i do know i have to reform the mental health landscape in the world.
one step at a time, so india first.
and i will do it
