Interning in a Mental Health psychosocial rehabilitation facility for the past three weeks has been an incredible learning experience. I originally applied for the Prime Minister’s Scholarship to Mumbai as I wanted to learn about how Mental Health care operates in South Asia, particularly regarding how Mental Health workers navigate stigma and incorporate cultural knowledge. As one of the first Tamil clinical psychology students, I wanted to know more about how Mental Health can be better applied for our people. As India is one of the more developed countries in South Asia where Mental Health care is available, I jumped at this opportunity to intern in Mumbai.
Did you know that approximately 95% of psychological research is done on WEIRD populations (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic)?
This is ‘WEIRD’ because this is not even majority of the world’s population!
I have been interning with MANAV Foundation, a rehabilitation centre for adults living with Mental Illnesses. MANAV Foundation recognises that while there are often supports for children and adolescents, there is limited support available for adults. Through various programmes and therapies, MANAV Foundation aims to improve the wellbeing, rehabilitation and recovery of people living with Mental Illnesses. To give you a better idea of MANAV Foundation’s work, here’s a rundown of my typical day!
- I get there around 9am. Without fail, chai is served! While I have now had chai at many places in Mumbai, my favourite is the work chai made by Usha Tai.
- From around 9:45am, the sessions will start, running for about an hour each. There are so many, but here are my favourite sessions.
1. Natya Therapy: This is founded and facilitated by Komal, who uses traditional Kathak concepts to help clients concentrate on aligning the connection between their mind, body and soul. I love these sessions as they involve movement, including taali (hand claps), mudras (hand gestures) and footwork which is such a fun way to practice concentration. Also, as a Carnatic music student it's truly so exciting to see the use of traditional music knowledge for mental wellness- my mum originally pushed me into Carnatic singing as a child to increase my concentration. This is exactly what I wanted to learn when I was seeking how traditional South Asian knowledge can be used for mental wellness.
2. Music Therapy: Through music activities, the group works on five domains- emotional, cognitive, functional, social and behavioural. Each month has a different focus, this month's being cognition and social. We are doing activities that require clients to recall music which has a certain lyric in it, or match the beat as a group. Whilst fun, clients also learn turn-taking, non-verbal communication and memory recall. As a side, oftentimes they involve singing Bollywood songs which I love.
While I am only halfway through my time with MANAV Foundation, I have learned so much already. Here are the two core learnings I would like to bring home to Aotearoa New Zealand.
1. The Stigma of Mental Health
While Mental Health is stigmatised across the world, in many ethnic cultures it is so severely stigmatised that many go unsupported and even socially excluded as a result. For example, having worked with refugee youth from various ethnic cultures at Refugees as Survivors New Zealand (RASNZ), I know that oftentimes the word to describe one with a Mental Illness is just ‘crazy’. I was unsurprised to find that it is similarly stigmatised in India. MANAV Foundation challenges this through outreach and advocacy events. During my first week, I was fortunate to attend an outreach event organised by my fellow intern Tanvi for the organisation Sahyog, where women could more information about what mental health is and MANAV’s services. This was by far one of my favourite opportunities here. While I couldn’t understand the workshop which was in Hindi, seeing the women’s genuine passion to learn more was heartwarming and a strong reminder of how important Mental Health awareness is.
2. Mental Health through an Indian cultural lens.
I have always wanted to learn more about Mental Health knowledge from different countries. While Western Mental Health care stands as the golden standard, having learned about Māori and Pacific Mental Health care at University, I knew there was much more knowledge that was being missed. In MANAV Foundation, cultural context is at the forefront. Certain therapies are completely from India, including Yoga and Natya Therapy. Furthermore, the ‘collectivist’ vs ‘individualist’ societies that we often discuss in Aotearoa goes undiscussed in India because the norm is completely collectivist. For example, I was in awe to find that many sessions focus on how clients can support their families, whilst in Aotearoa we may prioritise how clients can find support for themselves. Through these cultural differences, certain Mental Health mindsets that I have had are being shifted, particularly the focus on holistic wellbeing and collectivism.
I am really grateful to the entire MANAV Foundation team and the clients themselves for supporting me throughout the internship. It has not been easy as I do not understand Hindi, therefore I cannot follow the sessions independently nor help with those clients who only speak Hindi. But the MANAV Foundation team always explains the sessions to me after they occur and I have learnt exactly what I wanted to (plus some Hindi along the way). I hope I can use this knowledge to support the growing South Asian population in Aotearoa.