Suicide helpline witnesses a dip in distress calls

Updated on: Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Here is some good news for mental health activists battling suicide and depression in a city where stress levels are high and tolerance levels low. The Vandrevala Foundation, which has compiled data on all calls on its helpline, saw a dip in distress calls this year compared to 2010. For each month of 2011 till April, the number of suicidal callers, as well as those with mental health issues, is far less than the number of such callers in the corresponding month last year.

The highest number of callers with mental health issues (541) and suicidal tendencies (46) was in January 2010, the month Mumbai witnessed a sudden spate of suicide among students. This January, the helpline received less than half that number of suicide calls. In all, the helpline received 73 suicide calls this year, but the number was more than double in the first four months of 2010. “The numbers are definitely encouraging,” says Hyacinth Pereira, senior vice president of the foundation. He feels awareness about mental health issues is increasing. “People now feel that help is just a phone call away. I feel this itself has resulted in a drop in suicide calls over the last one year,” he says.

Dr Rakesh Ghildiyal, president, Bombay Psychiatric Society (BPS), feels suicide prevention and awareness campaigns conducted by several organisations have focused not just on the issue, but on enhancing positive mental health. This, he feels, is possibly one of the reasons why the number of distress calls on the helpline has declined. “People are now talking more about depression and suicide. Earlier, if a child said he did not want to live any more, his parents would tell him to stop being silly. Today, they take it more seriously,” Ghildiyal says.

Mental health experts from BPS have also been involved in training those manning the Vandrevala Foundation helpline. The callers range from students in distress to lonely senior citizens and from women with marital problems to those who cannot deal with their children. The details of each call have been carefully documented. One such call was from a class IX topper who lost the motivation to study in class X. Another was from a 19-year-old boy who was going to appear for his class XII exams, and was extremely stressed. On probing further, it was found that he had lost a loved one.

Suicide helpline witnesses a dip in distress calls

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