Today is the day of two significant events. In numerical numbers, this day is 10.10.2020, the day we will never see again in our lives. Secondly, this day is observed as World Mental Health Day.
On this day, the World Mental Health Day, with the overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilising efforts in support of mental health, came into being.
The World Health Organisation recognises World Mental Health Day on 10 October every year. Importantly, this year’s theme is ‘mental health for all’ set by the World Federation for Mental Health. Previous themes include: 2018 Young people & mental health, 2019 Suicide Prevention.
This year’s World Mental Health Day comes at a time when our daily lives have changed considerably as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The last few months have brought many challenges: for health-care workers, providing care in difficult circumstances, going to work in fear of bringing COVID-19 home with them; for students, adapting to taking classes from home, with little contact with teachers and friends and anxious about their futures; for workers whose livelihoods are threatened for the vast number of people caught in poverty or in fragile humanitarian settings with extremely limited protection from COVID-19 and for people with mental health conditions with many experiencing even greater social isolation than before. And this is to say nothing of managing the grief of losing a loved one, sometimes without being able to say goodbye.
The economic consequences of the pandemic are already being felt as companies let their staff go on a long leave in an effort to save their businesses or indeed shut down completely as happened to some companies know to us.
Given past experience of emergencies, it is expected that the need for mental health and psychosocial support will substantially increase in the coming months and years. This is why the goal of this year’s World Mental Health Day campaign is increased investment in mental health.
A Brief History
The World Mental Health Day was observed for the first time on 10 October 1992. It was started as an annual activity of the World Federation for Mental Health by the then Deputy Secretary General Richard Hunter. The day is officially commemorated every year on the same day.
At the beginning, the day had no specific theme. Its aims were general ones of promoting mental health advocacy and educating the public on relevant issues. In the first three years, one of the central activities to mark the day was a two-hour telecast broadcast globally through the US information agency satellite system from studios in Florida. WFMH Board members participated from the studio with live telephone participation from Australia, Chile, England and Zambia and pre-taped segments from Geneva, Atlanta and Mexico City. In the first such telecast it was realised that we were indeed reaching far a-field, because there was an unanticipated and unscheduled telephone call-in from Swaziland where a group of WFMH members had gathered to view the program. And that year, the very first of many feed-back reports came from Peru.
Now, let’s go deeper and find out what is spirituality and how is it connected with mental health
Spirituality is a globally acknowledged concept. It involves belief and obedience to an all powerful force usually called God who controls the universe and the destiny of man. It involves the ways in which people fulfil what they hold to be the purpose of their lives, a search for the meaning of life and a sense of connectedness to the universe. The universality of spirituality extends across creed and culture. At the same time, spirituality is very much personal and unique to each and every person. It is a sacred realm of human experience. Spirituality produces qualities such as love, honesty, patience, tolerance, compassion, a sense of detachment, faith, and hope in man. Of late, there are some reports that suggest that some areas of the brain mainly the non-dominant ones, are involved in the appreciation and fulfilment of spiritual values and experiences.
Mental health has two dimensions: absence of mental illness and presence of a well-adjusted personality that contributes effectively to the life of the community. Ability to take responsibility for one’s own actions, flexibility, high frustration tolerance, acceptance of uncertainty, involvement in activities of social interest, courage to take risks, serenity to accept the things which we cannot change, courage to change the things which we can change, the wisdom to know the difference between the above, acceptance of handicaps, tempered self-control, harmonious relationships to self, others, including Nature and God are the essential features of mental health. Spirituality is an important aspect of mental health.
As pointed out earlier, spiritual values and religious practices are important in the lives of our patients. Many of their problems may centre round existential pre-occupations. It is therefore important that we incorporate spirituality and religious practices in our treatment protocol. We must propagate the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual model in our approach in psychiatry.
This is where Go Spiritual India comes into the picture. Go Spiritual India is a not for profit organisation that works for spiritual awareness, charity, organic, spiritual tourism, events, media and social causes and all this for the sake of mental health.
The organisation works towards spreading spiritual awareness in the world through events, media, tourism, books and other communications channels. It is also planning for a very large event for the World audience to promote Indian spirituality and ways of life.
One will love Go Spiritual India as much as we do because it will morph perfectly on your needs.
