Last December, when Kushal Punjabi committed suicide his friends were shocked. He had been out at a friend's party on December 25, 2019 and none of his friends picked up the signs that Punjabi was depressed and when they said goodbye that would be the last time, they would see him alive. That got his good friend Harmeet Singh of Meet Brothers thinking.
“When I said goodbye to him at the end of the party I never realised that I would not see him alive again. The next day when I got the news, I was shocked; I couldn't believe it. When I went to his house and saw his mother and sister in tears and inconsolable, I knew that I had to do something about it — how to help others. Charity, like they say begins at home and hence The WeCare Initiative was launched on World Suicide Prevention Awareness Day on September 10, 2020,” the singer-music director tells you.
The aim of the initiative is to train common people as gatekeepers who can then spot the signs of depression in others and offer help by asking them pertinent questions without alarming the person but ensuring that he opens up and gets the help that he needs. The focus is to also reduce the stigma around emotional and mental health issues, spread awareness about suicide prevention and change the way people look at mental and emotional health. By training as many people as possible within the industry as gatekeepers, there will have eyes and ears everywhere to identify the signs of suicide and know what to do and how to help. “The idea is to train ordinary people who can identify signs of depression among others, create awareness about the issue and where necessary help the person suffering from mental illness get the necessary help he requires. The training is imparted by experts. It is a two-hour session which people can join after registering at www.wecareinitiative.co.in andpaying a fee of Rs 1,000. The initiative has been launched with the help of a few friends and well-trained professionals. The rising rate of suicides in the country,especially in the entertainment industry, has brought the conversation aroundmental health into the open and that's the first step,” Singh explains.
Natasha Sharma, executive director of the initiative tells you the one of the goals on their initiative is about suicide prevention and how to tackle the mental disorders. “The more we talk about it, the more it will help people. One of the reasons for the rise in suicides can beattributed to the lockdown due to the pandemic. Today, the world is a very pressured place. There is a lot of financial pressure and the younger generation is alot more sensitive than what people were of the 70s-80s. Anxiety is on the rise. They see everyone struggling; they are worried about their future,” Sharma says.
She tells you that before any initiative starts, it is important to define a target audience.
“For us it is the entertainment industry and not just Bollywood. There is this institute in the US, the QPR Institute byDr Paul Quinnett, founder-CEO. He has 20 years of research-based programmes and one of them is gatekeepers training programme. There is an NGO in Bengalure, Suicide Prevention India Foundation. We have collaborated with them endorsed by QPR Institute and we conduct gatekeeper training which teaches people who toidentify signs and what to do about it. It is a sensitising training wherepeople are taught to look for certain signs that this person is going throughor attempting or planning suicide and understand what he is going through. As a gatekeeper you will know and save a life. It may be 20 years down the line butthe gatekeeper will know. We realise that we can't be accessible to everyone. What we can do is train as many gatekeepers as possible to be our eyes, earsand hands on the ground. If we can train enough gatekeepers, we can prevent the next Kushal Punjabi from happening," Sharma says.
