Major progress has been made in improving the health of millions of people, increasing life expectancy, reducing maternal and child mortality, and fighting against leading communicable diseases (Report of the Secretary-General Special Edition UN). This statement cited as the introductory remark by the UN Secretary-General in his update on the Sustainable Development Goal 3 in 2019 was a proof for the progress that we as a global family were making towards the Health and Wellbeing Index. However, progress has stalled or is not happening fast enough given the current pandemic of COVID-19 which has overburdened our existing health infrastructure in the process of fighting against this health emergency.

At one end wherein the whole world is battling the Covid-19, the other end is fighting for wellbeing which has drastically taken a hit all over the world due to the rising poverty, loss of jobs, migration, displacement, hunger, etc. It has always been an evident factor that any disaster when creates this imbalance of wellbeing significantly impacts psychosocial well-being and development. Exposure to harsh factors like loss of near ones, separation from family members and friends, deterioration in living conditions, inability to provide for one’s self and family, and lack of access to services have immediate and long-term consequences for children, families, and communities and impair the ability to function and be fulfilled. Seeing such factors and having a larger understanding of the situation Caritas India was quick enough to structure a modality to initiate the process of Psychosocial Support through the Tele-Counseling approach from the time of Lockdown 2.0 in India.

It has been able to reach out to 200 plus callers as on date and with the effective measures taken, there was a larger need to have an open discussion on the subject as we are on the verge of the end of Lockdown 4.0. Hence, Caritas India on 29th May 2020 organized a Webinar on, “Family & Individual Stress Level Management Through Tele-Counseling”. The webinar started off with the Assistant Executive Director Father Jolly setting context on how important it is to address psychosocial issues during emergencies followed by a personal message of grief shared by the Executive Director Father Paul on the loss of a family member to the COVID19 virus and how he could relate to the trauma that one and a larger family faces at such times when the situation is not normal to even have a peaceful last rites ceremony for the dead. He stressed how psychosocial support is needed at all levels and systems should be in accessibility for everyone. We had 2 eminent speakers Dr. Shalini Aiyappa Ittira Head of Department and Assistant Professor at St. Aloysius College, Mangalore, and Prof. Neelam Sukhraman, Dept. of Social Work, Jamia Millia Islamia. who jointly discussed on the subject of Mental Health and the mechanisms of the subject of how it has to be addressed in the current situation of the pandemic in India and how organizations like Caritas India along with various CSOs in India. They stressed specifically on how development workers across the Nation working under different CSOs are also the frontline workers risking their situation and lives just like the health professionals to support the poor and the marginalized by providing them essentials however they aren’t equally recognized as the others.

Soon after their sharing on the subject of how psychosocial support is essential they addressed the audience from various parts of India with queries of how mental health is shifting paradigm post COVID19, the importance of mental health in primary education and the education system on the whole, also on how it plays a wider role in planning designs of infrastructure and development while planning policies for a larger population. They said that in India we are in need of the practical progression towards well being and not just talking development centric. The webinar was a fruitful exchange of thoughts and ideas from the audience of various walks of life students to academicians, practitioners to volunteers, etc. The program came to a fruitful conclusion with a larger question on how best we could sensitize the common man on the subject and the necessity of mental health and what could we all collectively do to support the same.