Sabr: A care collaborative

Greetings from the Sabr Collaborative on World Mental Health Day. This year, we are grappling with the question of mental health which members of the collaborative have encountered in myriad ways, but not directly and explicitly as a field of research and dialogue. Therefore, join us, as we take our first steps towards exploring mental health in India, the rest of this month.

We have peripherally explored the community mental health initiative in Kerala, which spun off from the community palliative care movement. See an early Sabr interview with Dr. Chitra Venkateswaran, founder of Mehac, Kochi, here. However, this inquiry was primarily motivated in understanding health systems and organization design. How do we build health systems that provide inclusive, affordable mental health coverage?

Then, our students make us re-think and ask foundational questions. Students come to us to talk about depression, anxiety, panic attacks, burnout. Terms that have become more frequently used in recent years. Terms inflected by caste, class, gender, religious identity. See, for example, Charan Mahananda’s reflections over at Nivarana on the mental health cost of caste in higher education. Find also, an allied conversation, in this research on self-pathologization among students in higher education.

The rising number of student suicides on Indian campuses underscores a severe mental health crisis driven by academic pressure, social isolation and systemic issues like discrimination. An estimated 13,000 students commit suicide in India every year, raising critical questions about the effectiveness of support systems within the Indian institutes.

We also confront questions of hate and polarization. Consider how the critically acclaimed Netflix series, Adolescence, has us grappling with cyberbullying, social media influence, the manosphere, loneliness, and isolation among the youth.

Most sharply, what is mental health in a world marked by war and genocide with impunity? What of the trauma for generations?

So to kickstart this month’s conversations on mental health, here’s what we have been listening, reading, and watching.

Reading:

1. The Tricontinental’s dossier on mental health, with a powerful message, some damning statistics, and very beautiful artwork.
2. The Polis Project calling out the problems with unregulated mental health organizations, and the need for alternative affordable, inclusive models.
3. Medecins Sans Frontieres talking about mental health in Jammu & Kashmir.

Listen and Watch:

1. Sabr conversation with Dr. Chitra Venkateswaran: On the work of Mehac, Kochi
2. Sabr conversation with Dr. Parth Sharma, where among many fascinating terrains, Parth talks about burnout.
3. The Song of the Cedars that has kept us going, thanks to Shardha’s and Atreyo’s frame- switching conversation here.

Watch this space for more.

With Love and Sabr,

Devi and Shaima