Let’s get into the Action: World Mental Health Day 2016: Psychological First Aid

7^th October, 2016: While I was coming out of the W.T. Young Library, University of Kentucky after short session of study, I was stopped by a girl. She politely asked me to fill up the form if I have time. I couldn’t decline it.

The form was standardized assessment tool for mental health status and when I completed filling up the form, the other girl immediately scored my test and referred me to a trainee consultant, who counseled me for short time. May be I didn’t require longer counseling based on my score and she informed me to come to the center if I need any help. They were providing psychological first aid. They were essentially working in response to World Mental health day 2016 with theme of Psychological first aid. That simple information actually helped me to find ways if I need any help in the future.

We are human and I feel human emotions are the most unpredictable things in the world and the distance between our normal mental status and abnormality is very thin. Anyone can switch over to other side at any moment. An instant of stress, anxiety, physical diseases, imbalance in the neurotransmitters could switch us to dark side of our mental health status. Especially when the world is turning competitive, eccentric, individualistic, we may suffer the things which we don’t want to. Even the healthiest looking human could be living with unseen turmoil and emotional disturbances around us.

A case of Nepal: Nepal was about to recoil from the wreckage of ten years long civil war (1996-2006) and was about to produce its precious new constitution. In April 2015, massive earthquake hit the Nepal and left many people bereaved due to loss of family, home, tangible and intangible valuables. Still many of us see its aftermath in shattered, cracked walls of home, teary eyes of the people who lost dear ones, mother, father, sisters, brothers, sons, daughter and other relatives, frustration because of amputated legs, nails and wires lingering in the bones, scarred skin and faces, frightful expression of kids and adults when something shakes the bed.

This is just an example of a disaster in Nepal. There are other several emergencies like war and violence in Syria and other countries, everyday hurdles, deadlines, and racing and fleeting lifestyle in which we have to fit ourselves for every new advances, we are in constant need of psychological assurance and social settings that pacify our emotional disturbances and racing hearts.

In such scenario, expert consultation from psychologists and psychiatrists is not available and accessible all the time due to their inadequate number and limited presence only at the tertiary level care centers and urban areas. We need someone by our side who can provide psychological first aid just the way a simple trained person can deliver cardio pulmonary resuscitation to a dying person with cardiac arrest. A person who can make someone accept the reality and help to find the ability to fight with the reality. A person who can arouse the passion for something in life, a person who find time to listen and create social environment that bind people together.

World Health Organization (WHO) is celebrating this mental world health day on October 10 with the slogan of Psychological First Aid. This harbinger is innovative and pragmatic way to achieve the holistic health as our current health system is mainly focused on physical symptoms and illness. This will surely sensitize our current health care service.

What can we do?

Most of the time, I see the trend of celebration of such important days with conferences and workshop where all the professionals and specialists gather up and share knowledge and stimulate each other. But we fall short in taking action, providing and continuing the services to the people in need. I hope psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health nurse experts, public health professionals, social workers would be leading this motto to action. Training and Preparing a bunch of people for first aid is only one aspect dealing with it. Other measures like formation of some form of society and communities such as literary clubs, professional’s clubs, youth clubs, mother’s group, Recreation group in the college, schools, villages with principles of inclusion, group work and cooperation would be equally helpful.