Jaip[ur, Feb 2. Mental health conversations have gained the
much-needed attention and momentum in the last few years in our country.
However, the challenges faced by the queer community and its impact on our
mental health continue to be side-lined.
It is imperative to create awareness
and have similar addressal on the mental health issues faced by different
marginalised communities. Working on mental health issues for/with the
queer community has always been at the helm of The Keshav Suri Foundation’s
(KSF) area of work. The foundation has brought forth the mental health
challenges faced by the LGBTQIA+ communities and has been working to improve it
by providing regular counselling sessions and hosting various workshops.
Ever
since the pandemic hit in 2020, the foundation established free mental health
counselling sessions and has counselled thousands of queer folks. It also started social media
property – QueeringQuarantine to engage the community folks with interactive
sessions, skill development, introduce the community to positive role models
and provided support through distribution of food and essential supplies.
To
ensure good mental health prevails within the communities, especially with the
third wave of Corona and lockdowns taking place, the foundation announced free
nationwide mental health workshops for the communities. The workshops will
be navigated by Mr. Deepak Kashyap, who is a renowned mental health and life
skills trainer, with an extensive experience in corporate wellness and diversity
and inclusion initiatives. He has been providing emotional and mental health
services in person and online for over 10 years. His work has impacted
thousands across the globe, and is now onboard for the mental health workshops
with The Keshav Suri Foundation starting from 29th January to March. The
workshops will be conducted in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur,
Chandigarh; and several folks have registered across cities for the same.
Excited
about the impending workshops, Mr Deepak Kashyap said, “We are conducting these
mental health workshops primarily to understand and ascertain the mental and
health needs of the queer community in India and see what knowledge, skills and
tools we need to address those needs. The emotional wellbeing of the queer community
has been ignored for a long time now, and the pandemic has proved how much and
how urgently do we need to pay attention to them. Please come join us in this
endeavour of compassion and care.”
Organisations
are beginning to accept folks from LGBTQIA+ communities in the workplace,
but we are far from providing a level playing field. Queer communities still
face a lot of discrimination because of the homophobic attitude, name calling,
bullying, slurs, all of which have a deep negative impact on our mental health
and psyche. The foundation is also running a social media campaign on their
page against name calling to build awareness and support for the community.
“I
can never over emphasize on the importance of mental health issues faced by the
queer community. The journey of self-acceptance is long and hard enough, and it
becomes even harder when we, queerfolks, have to face bullying or have to deal
with isolation. We are taking this initiative to help the community,
emerge stronger, self-reliant and stay positive in these harsh times,” said Mr
Keshav Suri, founder of the Keshav Suri Foundation.
