All through the second wave of pandemic, Sarita * will spend the night without sleep thinking of plans to regulate resources for themselves if he signed Covid-19.
The 29-year-old child lived alone and heard about the increasing infection and death around leaving very annoyed and anxious.
He included most of the helpline twisted callers supported by BMC to seek help to process feelings and eliminate anxiety.
More than 55% of the 30,000 callers connecting Helble ‘Samvaad’ since March 2020 reported anxiety.
For some people triggered by the inability to access the support system during a pandemic.
A caller chunk also reported stress from career reasons (20%) and loneliness from losing loved ones to pandemic (8%).
Ronald called Helpline who complained of great stress from the possibility of losing his job because his workplace had started downsizing.
He was the only member of his family income and thought of losing his job giving him a panic attack.
The counselor helped him with an anxiety reduction tool to feel better.
‘Samvaad’, was run by the Nonprofit Project Mumbai, launched on May 2020 by the Chairman of the Minister of Uddhav Thackeray for Maharashtra.
But Helpline receives calls from all over the country.
“Apart from mental health support, we have now begun to offer rows of support for children who have lost parents to Covid and special services for child sexual harassment.
Details are being circulated through district collectors can also be available.
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Not only Covid-19, callers seek help for other mental health struggles as well.
Many calls that focus on callers talk about their feelings for their changing bodies and weight gain.
Some callers have concerns about relationships because the second wave has surprised them and has suppressed their relationship.
About *, a 21-year-old child, deals with a combination of family problems and peers and caring for self-esteem when he struck helpline.
He has developed anxiety and began to endanger himself.
It starts with a lower danger level, like pinching himself every time he feels sad.
Then, the intensity of damage increases.
He began to cut himself, first on his body parts that anyone could not see.
The counselor suggested several alternatives to hurt themselves and asked him to hire them every time he felt the desire to cause himself to be injured.
A 27-year-old woman reaches Helpline to discuss the problem in a distance relationship which makes her feel very lonely.
He called feelings of helplessness and depressed.
After talking to the counselor, he said he wanted to keep calling every time he experienced trouble.
Helpline is operated by 20 counselors that have a minimum of a master’s degree in clinical psychology or counseling.
About 65% of the counselers can speak, read and write in Marathi, intentional efforts, said Joshi, to provide counseling services in the language preferred by the counselor.
Every call is analyzed and encoded separately, capturing location, call calls, duration of calls and references, while maintaining the confidentiality of the identity of each caller.
(* The caller name has been changed.
Samvaad can be reached at 18001024040 between 8am and 8 nights seven days).
Help is just a phone call
