To make mental healthcare more accessible and holistic, counselling centres have been set up in multiple districts, to provide individual, family and group counselling sessions. Counselling services are thus provided by either a psychologist, mental health social worker or barefoot counsellor, with an appropriate referral system wherever required.

The training vertical focuses on creating modules on psychological first aid, mental health literacy and trauma-informed care and conducting training sessions to enhance the capacity of frontline workers in Jan Sahas Empowerment Society and other organisations, government stakeholders and healthcare staff. We recently started the first batch of an online 3-month course on Barefoot Counselling for frontline workers. The first cohort had 25 organisations as participants.

This initiative looks at enhancing awareness of mental health and self-care at institutional levels in schools, colleges, shelter homes, hostels, jails, etc, as well as at the community level in SHGs, survivor forums, etc through talks, dance and IEC material. We have created a module for training community volunteers, known as mann sathis, to ensure ownership, empowerment and sustainability for awareness work within communities.

Through its commitment to employee wellbeing, Jan Sahas Empowerment Society ensures all staff and their family members have access to counseling services. We have also conducted stress-management and self-care workshops in both structured and informal formats, and have created a survey to assess employee wellbeing.

The team also actively engages in creating content for awareness and training modules, conducting surveys for assessment, creating resources and mapping mental health services.