Health and wellbeing
Mental health and counselling
India has roughly one psychiatrist for every hundred thousand people, almost all of them in cities. For most of the country, help is not expensive so much as absent.
We train community counsellors — teachers, ASHA workers, retired professionals — to recognise distress and respond well, and we run free counselling in Indian languages at centres and by phone.
We are careful about scope. Counsellors are trained to support and to refer, never to diagnose or to substitute for psychiatric care, and referral pathways to qualified clinicians are built before a centre opens.
How the programme works
- Free counselling in the caller's own language
- Community counsellors trained to recognise distress and refer well
- Referral pathways to qualified clinicians established before launch
- Support groups for families and carers, not only for patients
What your donation buys
- ₹4,000Training one community counsellor
- ₹18,000A month of free counselling sessions at one centre
- ₹90,000Setting up a counselling room and helpline in a new district
Questions about this programme
Is the counselling confidential?
Yes. What you say stays between you and the counsellor, other than in the narrow circumstances where the law requires disclosure to prevent serious harm, which the counsellor will explain at the outset.
Do you provide psychiatric treatment or medication?
No. Our counsellors provide support and refer to qualified psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. Where a family cannot afford that treatment, we help with the cost.