Hello young people. All the psychology enthusiasts. We welcome you again today. Yes, hello. Hola. Hi. Yes, yes, good evening everyone. Don't worry about the certificates. You've already met Manya. And hello to Manya, who's now put in the attendance link for today's. And she will also be the one giving you all the certificates. Along with some of the other people from our team. So, don't worry about the certificates. All of you will get it. Yes, and today sir is not going to join us. He will join us tomorrow. He has some meeting today. So, it is just going to be me. Day 1 2 3 4, all your attendance is with us. So, not to worry about it. Just focus on the learning. And if you have any questions from the last 4 days, please feel free to ask your questions before we start today's session. Which we are going to talk about a very important role for all you young people who are going to be budding psych who are budding psychologists and are going to choose some of you will, I'm hoping, choose psychology as your profession, as your subject as you go forward. And what is your role in community today, in today's time? Not to worry even if you've forgotten to mark your attendance. As long as you've marked it for the 80% of it, that's fine. So, you mark it today. For clinical psychology, you have to study psychology as your subject in 11th and 12th. Now, most schools have psychology. Even if not, then yes, you can take science or any other subject as well. And in your bachelor's, you can still pursue psychology. Military psychology is another subject. Yes, it is. Neuropsychology is also another interesting branch in which you understand and you study a little more about the neurological aspects of how it our brain functioning influences a lot that we do. So, in fact, in neuropsychological tests, you study about the cognitive functions and how different parts of your brain, the temporal, the parietal, occipital, prefrontal cortex, all of that has an influence on our decision-making, motor movements, and a lot of those aspects. So, the cognitive science aspect is quite um also linked to the neuropsychological aspect. But, there is certainly a neurological aspect also to study a lot more in detail in neuropsychology particularly. So, organizational psychology is how you study psychology in context to organizations where you have a role to play in the human resources uh particularly, and the auditing uh that you help with mental health-related, of course. And over here, what you also look at the motivational aspect, what are the various factors that are going to contribute to a person's productivity, efficiency, and even the mental health aspects, the wellness aspect within the workplace. Um that's what you study in organizational psychology. Workplace mental health is something which is quite critical. And workplace mental health policies is something which um in organizations have at least begun to acknowledge and start to incorporate and integrate in their wellness policy. And certainly has a long way to go for it to have uh a lasting impact. To become a clinical psychologist, you do your bachelor's, your master's. Um then M.Phil. And in today's after the changes that have happened in the NEP policy and the RCI related changes that have happened, post your bachelor's and your master's, you do a PsyD, which is an integrated course of or the degree of uh M.Phil. and Ph.D. But you can still pursue M.Phil. and your Ph.D. So, in criminal psychology, you study about the behavioral aspects, the personality variables, and so many other things um that you are looking at the population in that particular um in the criminological aspect. That's what you study. Criminal and forensics would be similar. And yes, if you have an interest, why not pursue it? Basic qualification required to practice is your post your masters. You can practice post your masters, but if you want to be licensed with Rehabilitation Council of India, then you need to do your MPhil PhD your MPhil particularly and now it's a side D that you need to do. You will receive your certificates on email or your school teacher counselor um can also receive that. You can also connect with them in case on email you've not been able to receive it. Request them because a lot of them are in touch with us and we will just send them uh your certificate. But yes, most of you will receive it on your email. So even when you get it we send it and you don't get it, try and check in your spam or your junk because sometimes they just go in different places. You can pursue your psychology after yes uh your commerce stream because now it's a common entrance examination. So you just appear for that. And if you clear it, of course you can pursue psychology. To become a psychiatrist, you have to have science in your 11th and 12th and you do your MBBS and after that you do your MD in psychiatry. Consumer psychology is the study of consumer behavior. So all your advertisements, marketing consumer buyer behavior, all that comes in in your consumer psychology. Of course with uh your humanities as your uh you can pursue any field of psychology with humanities uh and particularly with psychology as a subject in that. To be a clinical psychologist, you have to be certified by Rehabilitation Council of India. So, your degree needs to be uh RCI recognized to be a clinical psychologist, which I then has to be an MPhil or a PsyD. You can study wherever you want, but why not your own I mean, basically depends your choice to where do you want to study depends upon where do you want to practice ahead. Cuz like I said, if you want to be have the license to practice, then you it's always better to study from the country there where you want to practice. No, clinical psychologist cannot prescribe medications. It's not necessary that you need to have 11th and 12th um in your 11th and 12th biology to study psychology. It's not a mandate. The clinical psychologist is also a therapist. Therapist is a is a term which is used for people who give therapy, and clinical psychologist, of course, give therapy as well. So, there isn't a difference between the two. It's just about the kind of course curriculum which is being structured between B and BSC. You just have to see in what year what they are giving you. It's just a curriculum difference a little bit of that. You can go in for your applied psychology course as well if you have an interest in social developmental branches. Yes. I mean psychology has a lot of scope. It just depends upon how passionate you are for your for the subject and if you are passionate you just keep learning and you will do well in your life. It's like any other field that you're committed and passionate about. Okay. So, I think I've answered almost all the relevant questions. And now today we are going to study about psychological first aid skills. What is your role in community young people? Psychological first aid skills. I'm going to just pause over here for a minute. How often do you find yourself having the need of a first aid skill or a first aid or let's say even somebody around you needing first aid. And now compare it with how many times either you or peers or family or people around you require some kind of an emotional support, an emotional help, help related to their problem, their issues. Compare the two and you will be able to understand the significance of learning psychological first aid skills. Yes, quite often, many a times, much more than you would require a band-aid or any other form of first aid help and support. Absolutely, and which is why it's important that we recognize what is our role in community and how can we actually provide psychological first aid to those who need it. Your friends, your peers, your family members, and anybody else who requires your emotional support. There is, of course, it's a skill. It's not something that we are able to just do it like that. How many times it has happened we've gone up to someone and they've said something that we don't feel very comfortable about. Or a lot many times when somebody comes to us sharing something and we may feel a little uncomfortable about because we don't know what is the right thing to say. We don't know how to really go forth it. What kind of help can we give? What kind of support can we give? And a lot many times we do end up thinking, "How can I help this person solve the problem because I don't really have the solution to this problem." And which is where role of psychological first aid skills come in. But before that, let me ask you all a question. What are the stressors that people in today's time, all you young people, tend to face? What are the various stresses in your life? Things that stress you. Yes, go ahead. Career, academic pressure, procrastination, Yeah, and we procrastinate because either it's boring, not interesting, or too hard. School, future, exams, too many exams, fear of messing up, social perception, body image, peer perception, family pressure, balancing social and study life. How do we do the balancing act? Overthinking, meeting expectations of the people around us, judgment, appearance, adverse experiences that we've had, interesting examination. Sometimes even, yes, ambiguity and uncertainty, judgments that we tend to experience, a lot of uncertainty that we all feel about future and career. And that's what life is about. Life is about learning how to deal with uncertainties because we don't know what's going to happen next yet. There is certain kind of a certainty that we all can bring in our lives. Judgment, emotional neglect by family. Yes, so on and so forth. So, there are too many things that you as you can see, various things in our day-to-day life that can impact us. People, not just today, but all of these things have always somewhere stressed a lot of us. Whether it is our academic pressure, whether it is social pressure, whether it is in today's time even pressure that comes from social exposure to social media and the kind of information that we are bombarded with and the kind of comparisons it throws at us. The social pressure to fit in, a lot of uncertainty that comes in in day-to-day life, specifically in today's time also sometimes with the uncertain aspect of illnesses like COVID brought in that sense of uncertainty. Fear of parents, assignments, so there are day-to-day stressors that you experience, and then there are these long term things that we all engage in that can also bring in these thoughts about how they can stress stress us about future, finances, so and so forth. So, what we understand from this is that stress is inevitable. It's part of our day-to-day life. We cannot have a stress-free day or a stress-free life, but what we can certainly learn is how can we manage and respond to our stressors in day-to-day life? So, there are long-term stressors, there are short-term stressors, and then there are also these micro stressors that we have in our day where we are handling one thing and then we are handling the other thing, the uncertainty of suddenly an assignment coming in and and tomorrow is the deadline for that assignment, or the uncertainty of the fact that you got your marks and the marks you expected more and they came less and now how do I deal with that stress of sharing it with my family? Dealing with that kind of stress. So, there are also micro stressors that we end up experiencing and enduring in our day-to-day life. So, everybody experiences it to some extent. Every day we respond to events that require some kind of change, some kind of utilization of our resources, and stress is not always bad. I'm sure all of you have also heard about eustress, which means sometimes stress is also important for us to have an optimum level of performance, and that's what is called eustress. But then there are also severe and prolonged state of stress where your state of being can be negative. And in the last 4 days we've understood about so many aspects of how a negative state of being can happen because of what we may struggle with as a result of a mental health problem, ongoing stressors, stressors coming in from family, stressors coming in from various vectors in our life, stressors coming in because we have a mental health condition, stressor coming in because of the kind of interactions that we tend to have with our social world, and how coping, adaptation, sometimes all of these processes tend to fail and cause a lot of discomfort and tension to us. So, what we can understand from this is that both are part of life. Your short-term stresses are also part of life. Your long-term prolonged stresses are also also part of life, and all of us are going to go through something or the other in that sense. But what's important is for for us to understand is that how do we respond to these stressors? What kind of coping mechanisms do we use to respond to our stress so that it doesn't turn into a distress or even if it is a distress that it has turned in because it is long-term, it has been prevailing for a time for a longer time in your day-to-day life, how can we deal with this distress better? And that's why our mental health matters because these stress stressors that you have in your day-to-day life impacts your mental health and your mental well-being. So, mental health, what is mental health? Can anyone of you actually answer to that question? And and and okay, the alignment. Thank you. Despite me realigning all of that, Manya, did you download it from the email today or the WhatsApp? Because the alignment is still gone. But that's what is life. Again, the uncertainty that we deal with. Okay. Let's quickly look at the mental health statistics. Why mental health matters? Mental health matters because what we understand is that 332 million people globally experience depression. This is a worldwide statistics that you're looking at, which is 5% of the global population. Something that we also studied on day three when we were studying about a spectrum of disorders and major depressive disorder. What you also see is that one in every seven 10 to 19-year-old experiences a mental health disorder, which accounts for 13% of the global burden of disease in this age group. So, it's important to understand that how significant is mental health for all of you people. Yes, mental health is about being healthy mentally, but what do we do about to be healthy mentally is what is important. What do you guys do in your day-to-day life to ensure that your mental health is going good, is going positive, is a positive state of being. That's what is important because look at the number in this age group between 10 to 19 years. And then the impact that it is going to have on your academics, on your social life, on everything else that you do. Suicide also tends to be the third leading cause of death among 15-to-29-year-old. And it's something that we must understand is so preventable because what we must understand over here is that a lot many suicides happen. In fact, more than 60 to 70% of suicides happen because of undiagnosed 80 to 90% rather more than that undiagnosed, untreated mental health So, if we are able to recognize some of these signs and the fact that our mental health is getting affected, that's when we are able to ask for help. Early intervention and early treatment is what timely treatment is what helps us to prevent a lot of this that can happen. What we also must understand is that there are signs and symptoms that we must recognize to prevent death by suicides because young people lives matter. Our lives are valuable. And problems are something that can be resolved. Mental health problems can also be resolved provided we recognize them. We seek treatment for them. We provide people the right kind of support. We continue to keep emphasizing on the fact that we must unmute ourselves rather than keep struggling in silence. We must break the stigma. So, early support and awareness is significant to improve the well-being of adolescents and even adults for that matter. And yet what we see is that lack of awareness continues to maintain the stigma. So, in middle and low middle income countries even today more than 75% of people do not receive treatment for mental health conditions. People still choose to forego care. And this is a global phenomena because of the stigma. In a global study where over 90,000 participants from all across the globe found the study found that stigma remains to be one of the top reasons why people choose to forego care. So stigma is something that still prevails even in today's time just because some of us tend to share about it on social media and talk about certain posts here and there on mental health and our personal experience does not mean that there is awareness. Of course we've come a long way from what it was earlier but what we must understand is that even today stigma continues to prevail and continues to be one of the reasons as to why people do not seek help. Stigma is how people would feel about a particular condition because of the kind of stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination which is attached to it. That's what stigma is. Stigma is caused because of the stereotype. Stigma is caused because of preconceived notion that we have which is negative. What we studied yesterday about the stereotypes, the attitudes, the perception the discrimination that happens because of the attitude that we tend to carry because of this. And in mental health conditions, mental health illnesses, what we've seen for decades is that all of the myths and the negative perception, the negative narrative that has continued to be associated with how people with mental illnesses are labeled, how people with mental illnesses are perceived, how people with mental illnesses can be harmed to the society, may not be able to perform their day-to-day aspects the way anybody else needs to be to live in a society in a healthy way. All of that stigma and perception, the portrayal that was there for people with mental illnesses, that for the longest time has continued to perpetuate stigma. So, when you break the stereotypes, when you break these myths, you change the prejudice. You change the prejudice, that's how the change in the behavior that happens. And to be able to do that, young people, what you do is spread more awareness, the right kind of information. And that's how you unmute yourself in your social media project, if you have one, spread the right awareness, that's what you need. So, what are the barriers to help-seeking? Barriers to help-seeking are one, the general negative attitude towards help-seeking. Why should I seek help for something which I think is emotional? Because it's for me to handle. Because it's for me to understand. People won't be able to understand me. In fact, if I go up to them and talk to them about what I'm feeling and how emotionally vulnerable I'm feeling, people are going to judge me. So, from negative attitude towards help-seeking, that happens because of the fear of judgment or the fact that you will be discriminated if you go to someone and seek help or share about the kind of an emotional turmoil that you're going through, the kind of an emotional challenge that you're going through, or you tell them that you are having a mental health condition. It's the fear of judgement. It's the fear of discrimination. It's the attitude that you already tend to carry about people with mental health condition, mental health problem that makes us and makes that as a barrier for us to seek help. Also the reason why people still do not want to go to mental health professionals. Understand the kind of words that we've used for the longest time. Psycho, crazy, Language matters. Language continue to perpetuate that kind of stigma. It maintains that stigma. And yes, that brings in that feeling of shame, the feeling of embarrassment, the feeling of guilt that maybe this is what I have caused to myself. A lot for for the longest time and even today people still feel that it's because of their bad karma karma is why they're having a mental health problem, a mental health condition. And that's what we need to understand that all of these notions around mental health problems and mental health illnesses come in because of the way we've understood about mental health illnesses. Not biological, not psychological, less social, and more about the fact how people have always believed that it's a choice. You have a mental health condition, you have depression because you're not thinking right. You have a mental health condition because you're not doing your routine. You have a mental health condition because you're not doing your exercises, your yoga. You have a mental health condition because your approach to life is negative. You have a mental health condition because you don't think positive. And why should you have a mental health condition? Why should you have depression or any other mental illness? Because you have everything in life. That's how we've always seen and people still continue to respond to how mental health conditions are still stigmatized in today's time. Yes, you are too much on your phone is also another reason why sometimes people say that maybe that's why you are thinking negative. So, what we need to understand is that general negative attitude towards help-seeking comes in because there is fear of judgement, fear of discrimination, the stigma that continues to perpetuate, the myths, the lack of awareness and right information that's still around there, the fear that you are going to expose your vulnerability to somebody else, and how people are going to see you and judge you if you show the the weak, the vulnerable side of yourself. And the confidentiality aspect as well. What if they share it with somebody else? What if it I become a talk of the town? What if my problem, which I don't want others to know, and I just want to keep it to this one person because I want to talk to someone, it gets shared with people, more and more people, and then I again go on to feeling shame and embarrassment. The other aspects to barriers to seeking to mental health treatment is the deficit. The deficits are that even today less than 2% of the health care budgets are allocated to mental health, even though government is taking a lot of positive steps. The helpline has been quite a positive and a remarkable significant landmark approach towards mental health and how mental health support can be given to people to those who needed in crisis. A crisis intervention helplines have played a huge role in that. Yet, there is a long way to go with having the right kind of an allocation to mental health care. At the same time, the deficits of mental health professionals, which is roughly about 0.75 psychiatrists and even fewer psychologists and social workers for every 100,000 people. So, that's what you can see. How many of you would be required to be trained as psychologists, as psychiatrists to actually take care of 1.5 billion people population because mental health conditions and illnesses are only growing more and more and more, and which is why we need more people, more young people to pursue this as a profession so that there are more hands, more support, more help and support that can provided to those who need. So, that's the deficit that we're looking at. And for a moment, just reflect on what barriers have you observed in your surrounding that would come in when you talk about people seeking help for mental health. Just take a moment and a pause. What is it that that you've seen? Yes, fault of or the how the way society and the thinking about it. What could be the other reasons as to why? What are the barriers to seeking help? Criticism. People sometimes not respecting the dignity of of the others. Yes, fear of judgment. All of that. That's what you've also observed. So, how people around us in our society also tend to deny? We still tend to deny that no, I don't have a any problem and I don't need to go to a mental health expert even though the family members or the peers or the friends you may tell your friend that why don't you go and seek help and your friend may continue to keep saying no, I don't need it. And that's how sometimes you also tend to feel helpless about the fact that how do I help my friend or my peer when I know that they need something more than just me listening to them. No knowledge of the help of support that is available. Absolutely. It's also important for families to agree for the treatment process. The unsupportive environment, all of this is part of barrier to to mental health support. So, approach to community mental health. One is the exclusion part which has been happening for a longer time. Leaving people out, ignoring their needs and having limited access to support. So, deficit is also a limited access. Not having enough help helplines is also a limited access. Our attitudes is also part of the exclusion that we tend to follow. The negative approach, the stereotype, the stigma, all of this is what creates exclusion. And from there as an approach to community mental health, we need to understand what are the important aspects to include people with mental health conditions to make a lot of changes that actually create systems that support mental health care. So, welcoming everyone, valuing their voices, creating equal access to care and the opportunity to that care. So, from socio-economic support to the availability of support, to having the right information, to the access part, to even having the openness on how can we support people with mental health conditions. That's what is required. And as a part of the community mental health, this is where we must understand that inclusion plays a huge huge role in the community to ensure that health gets the right kind of support and action that it is required. That it requires. What is community mental health? Let's try and define that. Ensure that people have access to all services and support. Promotion of mental health, which means talking about mental health with the right kind of information from the right resources, having more open dialogue around mental health, not just merely around World Suicide Prevention Day or World Mental Health Day, but on a regular basis how we are able to promote mental health conversations. Prevention of mental health disorders by bringing the right kind of awareness at every level of the society and we're going to talk about that. And at the same time, having the the right kind of evidence-based treatment and rehabilitation that can be ensured for people with who require mental health support. So, that's what community mental health is. Yes, I wish people were less judgmental because well, judgments don't help us. Who are we to judge? If we don't understand first what is causing what, then judgments are just mere superficiality of uh what we continue to experience in society. And that's what disconnects us. That that's what disconnects from you to somebody else and somebody else to somebody else because the judgment doesn't allow us to really understand things where they need to be understood. So in in this aspect of community mental health, where do you fit in? You don't need to be a professional to do your role or to make a big difference. What you need is What do you need is Yes, Manya. What do you need is are the skills. Skills of psychological first aid. And this is where the role of psychological first aid skills come in. Yes, you need empathy. That's part of psychological first aid skills. What are psychological first aid skills? Psychological first aid involves a humane, supportive, and practical assistance for people who are in distress in a way that respects their dignity, their culture, and their abilities. So all you need to be is just provide your genuine humane support with just mere practical assistance. You don't need to resolve problems for people at all times. You don't need You may not have the solution to their problems at all times. But your mere support in a humane, caring, compassionate way where you maintain their respect, their dignity, their culture, and their potential, that in itself is enough for people to feel that there is a first aid that you've provided in an emotional way. So that's what psychological first aid. That's what emotional first aid is for you. Now, what sounds better? And it's been defined by WHO, the psychological first-aid skills is is what has been given by WHO, and that's the definition for it. Which is better? Telling someone, "Stop crying." or telling someone that I'm here for you. What would you feel better, comforted on hearing "Stop crying." or "I'm here for you."? Yes. Second, of course. And which is where it come we come down to the five core elements of psychological first-aid skills. The first-aid is somewhere gone. But yes, we can still understand the fact that the five core elements of psychological first-aid is one, safety. Second, the connectedness that you're able to bring in over there. Third, calmness. Your calm presence, your composure is something which is very important. Your self-efficacy, which means how confident you feel in your ability to actually provide psychological first-aid skills, and also taking care of yourself at the same time instilling hope. Hope is something that we can instill in people at any given point in time. Not by just constantly telling them that things are going to be okay, everything is going to get better, but hope is something that you can provide simply by shifting the kind of challenge that they're they're experiencing with your presence, your empathetic genuine presence, you can instill hope in people that they can do better. That they can deal with this better. Not that the situation will change or not that the situation is going to be okay because we don't know that. We don't have the answer to that, but what we know is we can instill that confidence and hope in them that they will be able to feel and do better. Now, taking in one skill at a time, let's get into it. So, what is psychological first aid is not. Something that only professionals can do. Something that professional counseling or therapy is required. Something where you pressurize people to talk about themselves, their reaction to stressful situations. And it is not about diagnosing or labeling the individual. It's not any of this. You don't have to be a professional. Okay. That was quick. I know. You don't have to be a professional. You don't have to provide professional counseling or therapy. You don't don't pressure someone to talk about whatever that they're going through at that given point in time or tell them what kind of a response they should be having to the stress. And you never diagnose and label because you're not a professional and that's not what psychological first aid is. Instead, the essential skills that you require in psychological first aid is empathy. Like a lot of you said, rightly, yes, empathy. Compassion. So, empathy is how we understand emotionally and in terms of the perspective, compassion is in terms of our act. How we are compassionate towards them. The resilience is how we are able to already instill that sense of resilience, support by bringing in confidence in their ability, helping them connect to the resources, the coping resources that they have, the patience that you can show, the altruism, the kindness that you can continue to spread in people around, in your act, in the way you speak, in the way you are, and the respect that you can show to people because dignity is something which is important at any given point in time towards people around us. Dignity must never be compromised. Respect must never be compromised. No matter in whatever situation you are or the person is. So, empathy, compassion, resilience, respect, altruism, patience, some of the basic values, the values that we've always been taught, are actually the values that make the essential skills of psychological first aid. So, the three action principles that WHO has given for psychological first aid are one, the first one is what does the sign show you? Yes, somewhere there. Somebody said see. I see you. So, see is the right word. Look. The first action principle is look. Look. Then listen. Yes, listening is the second one. And what does the third one say? Any guesses? Look. Listen. It's the three L. Look. Listen. L. The third one also starts with L. Look, listen, and link. Yes, one of you have given the right answer, link. Look, listen, and link. Let's start with the first one. Look, which means you identify who in your environment requires your assistance, your support. It could be a friend, it could be a peer, it could be somebody in the family. You look at what are the signs and symptoms of distress. You recognize the signs and symptoms of distress, and some of the initial signs and symptoms of distress are going to be behavioral and emotional. Where you would see that the person is not looking their normal self, their mood may be changed, they may be feeling anxious, they may be feeling sad, upset, crying, lack of energy, not being able to think through, maybe overwhelmed, hassled, or any other kind of symptoms that you may see behaviorally, withdrawn, isolated, not engaging, completely disengaged. These are some of the signs and symptoms that you see are of distress. And that's where you recognize that perhaps this person requires support. You pay attention to these details, and the kind of events that may have led for the person to feel that way. It could be an immediate event that may have happened. Let's say, for example, in school it could be a bullying episode that may have happened with your peer, and that's leading them to have some of these signs of feeling distressed. You also assess if there is need for safety or assistance required at that point in time. Any immediate medical assistance that is required, that's also important aspect in in that, specifically when it comes to any experience that could be or any event that could be trauma induced for the person. Over there, it's also important to uh judge the safety, the physical safety, and the medical aspect uh at that point in time that the individual may require. And you observe the individual's response and the emotional reactions. So, your observation of the individual is something which is important. You look, you reach out to them, you ask for the kind of support, is everything okay? Can you help them? Something that they would like to share. The reason why they may be looking distressed. Do they need any kind of support? Do you need a glass of water? Do you want me to call up someone? And that's the part of the link, but that's how you understand and you you see, you look around you. So, what are the emotional changes? Sadness, low confidence, sudden change in the mood, emotional outbursts, temper outbursts, irritability, nervousness, anxiety. What are the behavioral and social changes? Social withdrawal, increased conflicts with colleagues, hostility towards the others. Loss of interest or desire to participate in activities, change in appearance, any decline in personal care, increased use of substance. You may be observing that happening over a period of time and the change that the individual is going through over a period of time. It could be a friend, it could be a classmate, it could be a peer, it could be somebody in the neighbor that you know. Uh it could be somebody in your family as well. The physiological changes, which is fatigue, lethargy, change in the appetite, changes in the sleeping pattern, frequent aches and pains and physical illnesses. So, if you look at it, these are some of the signs that you would see also as a result of the changes of what an individual may go through as a part of the mental health problem. So So, for us to be able to understand that somebody is struggling emotionally, psychologically, or maybe having a mental health problem or condition, it is to do with our initial emotional and behavioral changes. And these are some of the signs and for you to recognize that yes, somebody would need help. Performance-related changes, which means increased errors, difficulty meeting deadlines, feeling of a lack of support, lack of focus, concentration, increased absenteeism, and diminished productivity and output. So, you see emotional changes, you see behavioral and social changes, you see physical changes, and you also see performance-related changes. You look for some of these signs in the individual. Then the second comes is the listening part. Look, you observe lot of these signs and symptoms, and then you go on to the listening part. Because now you are approaching to the person for help and support. You are offering that help and support as a part of the psychological first aid. So, you approach the person in distress. You establish a rapport by introducing yourself. Let's say if you go to someone who don't know you that well, but otherwise, if it's a friend, family member, peer, colleague, you don't need to of course introduce yourself. You pay attention to the details that are shared by them in crisis. You listen actively without interrupting, without judging, because we recognize how judgment becomes a barrier. We be patient with the person. The information that they are sharing and we ask about what their needs and concerns are. So, it's important that we listen to all of this in an empathetic, patient way. Now, what are the right way to actually listen and what are the things you should not do when you're listening to someone because listening is also a skill. As you can see, it comes under the psychological first aid skill. So, listening is a skill. Not everybody knows how to listen well. First, be willing to understand their situation. So, yes, for us as psychologists and professionals, mental health professionals, we are we charge for listening because listening is a skill. And that's why it's important that we learn, we train ourselves in listening a lot better. So, be willing to understand their situation. Listen patiently to understand. Maintain a relaxed body language. Adopt an empathetic approach and show your compassion. Offer unconditional positive regard. Clarify questions to get a better understanding of the situation. You ask questions to understand the situation. You ask questions not to interrogate or not to say, "I don't even know if what you are telling problem genuine or not." Some of you will ask that question, "What if they are just um it's not even genuine and they're faking it." That's not what we go with. That's that because that's an judgment already that we are holding there. Then, you might as well just not go because if you already have a judgment, then you will not be able to provide support. So, the the first aspect to providing support and going to someone when you see them in distress is to leave all the judgment behind to and actually understand what the person is going through. Respect their personal boundaries. You don't make false promises. Yes, you do not make any false promises. You maintain personal boundary. If the person says, "I am not comfortable sharing something like this." You maintain and respect that. What you do not do, you don't jump to conclusions. You don't jump to conclusions by thinking, "Oh, this is who this person is. This is how they are." Or the fact that they don't know how to deal with their problems. They are perhaps weak. All of that that comes as a part of our judgement. We don't don't jump to conclusions. We don't form a negative judgement. We don't interrupt them while talking to say, "Oh, well, no, no, no, no. I know, I know. I had a similar problem like you. I know what's the solution to this." You don't be preachy. You don't just give in to an advice just because you think you know better. You listen. You listen patiently. You listen empathetically. You don't get distracted. Because like I said, listening is a skill. You don't make false promises. You don't give false information. Everything is going to be okay. "I know what had happened in that situation." If you don't have the information, you simply say, "I am not aware." "But all I can do right now is just be here to support you." You don't talk about your own problems. Like I gave you the example, "I know what you can do exactly in this situation because I have been through something like this." And I know my troubles, and this is something lot lesser. I have I have been through bigger troubles, and this is what you can do. You don't do that because then you're diminishing the person's emotional turmoil that they are experiencing or distress at that point in time. You don't pressurize them to talk. You give them the space to share as much as they want to share. If it is consistent and over a period of time it gets worse, you continue to link them and keep encouraging them to go to a mental health expert to talk to someone who actually could provide them the solution to the problem. That's what you do. Establish a sense of connectedness. Encourage contact with support systems. You encourage them to talk to a trusted adult. You encourage them to talk to a mental health professional. You encourage them to reach out to helpline. Because that's where they may have may be able to get the solution in the right way to the problem that they're experiencing. You may not have the solution to the kind of problem that they are having, but you can with your support, your presence, your calm, composed, patient, empathetic listening. And then you're linking them to the right kind of support. That's also part of psychological first aid skills. So, linking them to the right information, to the right services, connecting them with the individual the individual with the mental health expert. And that's what you can do. You can develop peer support networks. Build positive relationships. Relationships is what provides us a lot of emotional resilience. And that's what That's where we must invest in. Your number of followers on your handles, your number of likes on your posts, your comments on your posts. That's not how you develop positive relationships. Positive relationships are developed and built over a period of time when you invest in them a lot outside the space of social media as well. When you actually call them directly, when you're actually there, when you spend time Remember? Social psychology, mere exposure effect. The familiarity increases the sense of connectedness, positivity, comfort that you feel with people, with peers. We don't get into the in-group out-group behavior, but we must practice altruism, which is kindness, which is niceness that we can give to people around us. A lot of young people in school years as a part of their, yes, changing group dynamics, tend to experience a lot of meanness, rudeness, isolation, exclusion. All of that doesn't make relationships very positive. So, be there for each other. From being a peer, be a pillar of support. Respect and thank, show gratitude to each other as well. When somebody, your friend, your peer is supporting you, is trying to help you, be thankful. Also, try to return that in some way or the other. Stay connected. Cultivate empathy. Empathy is also a skill. How can we can be understanding to each other? How can we understand their scenarios, their situations, have a perspective to it? And take responsibility of our own action. Somebody else can be mean, but do I also need to be mean? You can move away, you can step away, you can find somebody else to be with, another friend to be with, but it's not necessary that we need to return that meanness with another meanness. Because then we are growing that, and not the positivity that we want to experience in relationships. Yes, reality check is also important. We just don't build things in our mind and believe that what I am thinking and what I'm believing is the only version of what it can happen. There could be multiple versions of what can happen and which is why it's important to listen. It's important to understand. It's important to introspect. It's important to reflect and make the effort to do all of that. That can happen. Somebody may need your help and is feeling low, but at that point in time your own mental health may not be adequate to be an active listener and that's fine. You can always say that, you know, well well I I really want to help you at this point in time, but I think uh I myself may be feeling a bit overwhelmed. How about you reach out to another friend of us or or maybe a parent or maybe, you know, a mental health um you know, a counselor on a helpline, somebody who can listen to you at this given point in time. One can always direct them to the right kind of support. That's okay. Uh we all can go through difficult times, tough periods, and sometimes it can be difficult for us to extend ourselves at that point in time. Uh take your time, take care of yourself, and then come around. Come around and and check on them a little later. Now in schools, how can we uh provide and promote mental health is when we engage in awareness programs on mental health for all, mental health curriculum, where you understand about the signs and symptoms of mental health conditions, um how it's important to use the right kind of language that promotes dignity, respect for all, how to continue to break the stigma by busting the myths, and providing the right information, how continue to how to continue to engage in dialogue that promotes mental health conversations in a safe space, in a safe environment, and how we continue to keep building on our life skills through life skills training, whether it is media literacy, whether it is how to be a buddy from being a bully, whether it is assertiveness skills, whether it is emotional management skills, whether it is your studies and managing your pressure and having effective study skills. All of this All of this is important for us to be trained in. And these campaigns can be run by young people like yourself. Where you be the torchbearer, you learn about these skills and then you promote it in your younger ones. And that's how you engage in prosocial behavior. From a peer to a peer, from an elder peer to a younger peer, you be those good role models, you be those positive role models that young people can look up to and learn from. A lot of your personal experiences of how you were struggling at a given point in time and you learn these skills, you sought support and that helped you. Those stories how you pass them on and how you teach young people to also have the right kind of skills can certainly promote a lot of prosocial behavior and a lot of prosocial role modeling, which is required in schools. Practice self-care. That's important. We all need some kind of help and support. We all need some time for our own selves. Relax. Take a pause. Tomorrow we are in any case going to engage in another interesting session on how to take care of yourself by using you music as a means, as a tool to take care of your mental well-being. Digital detox, very, very important. How many of you actually are able to switch off? And you're not having that phantom limb kind of an experience when the phone is not around you. Or let's say you've not read a notification for half an hour, 15 minutes. How many of you actually practice practice digital detox? Leave the phone aside for a couple of hours. Okay, I'm glad if some of you are actually able to do it. You have screen time limits, that's wonderful. Glad to know, good to know that. Great. Yes, so continue to keep practicing that. Find activities and hobbies that are meaningful to you. That help you feel calm. And at the same time, spend time with your family and friends outside of the world of virtual and social media, like I said. You don't just send a WhatsApp every time to somebody who's sitting in the next room, but just take a few steps. It'll also add up to your physical exercise a little bit here and there. If you just walk up to someone, if you just go meet your friend, uh rather just, you know, pinging each other on on that platform, uh but you go around, you take a walk along with them, you pull a peer around, pull a pull a peer up and say, "Let's go for a walk or let's play badminton or let's do something else. Let's do something fun." That's something again, that's a time well spent with family and friends and certainly helps you feel relaxed and also builds emotional resilience. Workplace mental health, raising awareness about mental health in workplace. Preventing stigma and discrimination. Promoting a healthy lifestyle and work-life balance is important. Work life, where life has so many other things. Work is a significant part of our day-to-day routine. We spend more than 50% of our day at work space. And which is why it's important to have healthy workplace relationships, healthy relationships and interpersonal relationships at work, and at the same time, how do we balance our life where there is work, where there is studies, where there is friends, family, our hobbies, our things that we want to invest in in ourselves growth, all of that. So, it's not just a pie which is cut in 50/50 into halves, where there is work and then there is um you know, your family life, but that that pie has too many pieces. Work certainly has a significant amount of time spent, and then family, and then in your self-growth, and so many other things. So, promoting a healthy lifestyle and at the same time, supporting workers in work space, and how can you continue to build in the right kind of a support system in the work environment by having the right policies in place is also important. So, helping them reach out to resources when there are mental health uh signs and symptoms that they see uh and they recognize as affecting their efficiency, their productivity, having that sense of openness, that safety, that people working in your workplace are actually able to talk to you about that, because a lot many times discrimination within the work space can can act as a as a barrier for people to open up about it. Some of the other key social services, NGO groups, how can certainly contribute a lot in promoting mental health and reducing the stigma, increasing access to services by providing training to uh field workers. Your RWs to promote positive mental health through awareness, education programs, and um the access to mental health support and community-based mental health rehabilitation, where again you continue to do a lot of awareness through education programs and access. So, access in all of this is the key. And along with that, awareness, talking about it, continuing to do that is also the key. So, awareness, access, and in the middle is all your action that you need to take, your steps that you need to take to continue to build community mental health services. And yes, you break the stigma. That's important part of community mental health. So, when you're talking to an RWA or when an NGO group is going and talking to people in small parts of the you know of a city or in small districts, you do approach those topics in a different way. In fact, the some district district mental health there is also that aspect that the government has introduced where the local hospitals need to have a mental health professional and a care aspect over there. And how can some of these NGOs or social field workers connect the two is also something interesting work that the government has doing in that area as a part of community mental health. And breaking the stigma, providing the right kind of information, and approaching people based on how they tend to have a negative attitude, that's is also that is studied as a part of community mental health. How do you break stigma in a particular community? Because even that community may have a certain cultural practice which may not align with another community. And that's the sensitivity with which we need to approach community mental health. Social media for mental health advocacy, young people for all those who are there that's your space to be a mental health advocate and continue to promote mental health advocacy. The purpose that you align with, the stigma that you want to break, the credible credible information that you want to spread say no to cyber bullying. Spread positive messages. Be yourself. That's important. Maintain your sense of individuality. Don't lose your sense of self in conformity. Something that we studied yesterday in our social psychology session, how it's important that we maintain our sense of individuality, we be true to ourselves. We can be the best version of who we are. We don't need to use the filters. We don't need to conform to the challenges and the trends. And if you enjoy the moment that you are having, then you will not fear missing out on what the others are doing. If you are mindful, if you enjoy what you're doing, then the fear of missing out is just a term and nothing else. And you're able to just simply feel a sense of relief by being in your own space, in your own moment, and continue to embrace your whatever that you're enjoying at that point in time. Summer project? Again, every day, like we continue to keep talking about the fact that how it's important that you unmute yourself and you impact lives by sharing the right kind of information and um advocacy, mental health advocacy is the right way to do it. So, for those who are there, do it. For those who are not there, you can do it a little later when you choose to be on social media. And if you just don't want to be, it's not your space, that's fine. You can still be out there in small conversations, in small groups. Continue to break the stigma around mental health. Be sensitive, create sensitization, the right kind of awareness. If somebody you see talking about the the myths, the the continued uh stigmas, the stereotypes that is stereotypy that is attached to mental health conditions, you break that. You take the step to break it. You bring in the right information, and that's how you continue to be a mental health advocate. >> >> Yeah, you can be an emotional support system for anyone around you, and then at the same time make sure that you also take care of your own self. That's what is important. Self-care is also important. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't doesn't need to involve a lot of uh you know, investment in terms of what you do, where you do, but simple ways to take care of yourself are enough. And that's how you take care of your mental well-being. What is mental health? What is mental well-being? Mental health is when you are able to deal with your day-to-day stresses, when you're able to contribute to the society, when you're able to perform to your potential, when you're able to use your resources to cope with stress. That's what mental health is. That's what mental well-being is. And what is health? Health is your state of well-being when it comes to physical, social, and mental well-being. So, you cannot define health without mental health. And your mental well-being is what you live on a day-to-day basis. How well you are able to cope with your stresses, how well are you able to perform to your true potential and your abilities, how well you are able to contribute as a citizen of this of the society as a young person. That's what mental well-being is. And how positive do you feel in your state of being? Suggestions for the book on social psychology, like I said, David Myers is a good book. You will also find PDF versions of it online. And what you've learned today is significant as a part of your role as young people. Psychological first aid skills and we all we all recognize how important psychological first aid skills are and could be a lot more useful than simply a physical first aid that we are taught and all of us are aware about. So, how many of you are actually aware about psychological first aid skills, something new that all of you have learned today? The attendance link Manya has shared again, so you can fill that. Read. Read more, be more observant. To be successful in any field, be open to learning, be open to experiences. Yes, you can practice from home in an online space as well, specifically post COVID that got accelerated quite a lot. So, it is possible to see patients online in our kind of work, in our kind of field. Um and that's I that I feel is a is a positive side to our work. Don't worry about the attendance. Keep encouraging them. Keep encouraging them to talk to someone. Instill hope that how things can become better when you actually reach out to someone and the right kind of a professional for help and support. Because that's the way to come out of misery. So, we have a two choices. We can continue to feel miserable by just not seeking help or we can encourage someone to just seek help and just keep encouraging them to seek help. And just instill hope that if you seek help, things can be better. Yes, if people are coming to you and talking to you about things, uh there is something about how you're listening and the comfort that you're providing is the reason why people may feel comfortable in in reaching out and talking to you. Oh gosh, no. We don't continue to analyze people around us and we don't continue to analyze ourselves. Otherwise, how will we Our work is work like any other profession. This is a professional setting of and our work and in fact, we don't uh see and treat family members. That's an important part of our of our work ethics. So, even a close friend, I would suggest them to go to a colleague, but I would never uh do therapy with family members and friends. >> Sorry. >> Um working with children who have attention deficit, you give them breaks. That's what you do. And you also engage with um and which is where art therapy works a lot with young people, specifically when they have uh attention deficits or even otherwise with young people, art therapy works a lot better because there are so many other tools which are used uh with them to maintain and engage their attention and curiosity in what's happening in the session as a part of treatment. Well, you find a way to just shift your um mood from feeling negative because negativity can be around us, but all it takes is just to connect ourselves to things that make us feel positive. So, positive experiences can also be created by opportunities that we are able to provide our own selves. So, it could be something as simple as music. It could be some something as simple as talking to someone who who also uh engages in in in positivity or resilience and looks at life in a different way or just um hearing or listening to someone that is a that is able to bring in that positivity in you. It could also be art. It could also be music. It could also be reading. It could be gardening, any other activity that you like that brings in that positive experience for you. So, you make that choice. You make that choice to create that positive experience for yourself. Yes, that's true. Generations now and upcoming generations are of course a lot more aware and open to taking help and support. Yet, we do tend to find some friends and peers would hesitate to do that. Uh and which is why it's important that we continue to spread the awareness. And that mental illnesses are illnesses. And when you are thinking uh in a way which is not helping you, maybe seeking help and support can actually help and change that. Talking to a mental health professional can actually help and support them. Clarity is something which is important for the therapist and the psychologist in coherence not in a way that it is as a part of the symptom uh for therapy. If it is symptomatic, then yes, it first requires to be treated with the help of the medication so that coherence is there for the person to be receptive to therapy because if there is incoherence, then they will not be able to understand what is happening in the therapeutic space. Incoherence in thought process is also symptomatic. So, whether it is in a manic phase or it whether it is in a in a schizophrenic phase, uh that incoherence will be somewhere uh not helpful in a therapeutic process and is first handled with the help of the medications and treated with the help of the medications. And once the patient is more receptive um and the coherence is there, that's where the therapy becomes effective. You be a good learner, any university is good. Well, there is an aspect of supervision in therapy. >> >> Specifically in psychoanalytical or psychodynamic work, there is supervision which is required. So, yes, therapists do undergo their own supervision as well. Only psychiatrists can prescribe medications, psychologists cannot. Okay. I have answered all your questions that were relevant to the subject. And I will see you all tomorrow on music, mental health, and self-care. So, uh money up for once, can you just put in the attendance link for all the sessions till now? Day 1 2 3 4 and then 5, which you've already put today. Okay, there comes the attendance link for day 1. Day 2. Day 3. And day 4. It's already there. Day 1 is already there. Day 2, day 3, day 4. All the links are there from day 1 to day 4. Feel free to copy-paste and put in your attendance over there. Till then, I'll see you all tomorrow and hopefully Dr. Parikh is also going to be there for a uh for some time at least to in our tomorrow's session because we're going to be talking about music and somebody very special that he's already mentioned that we have collaborated on uh for the session on music and mental health. See you all tomorrow. Bye-bye.