PUNE

An Organisation responding to Emotional Distress and Suicides

Case Study from Community Counselling Experience :
The team at Connecting is nurturing a community conversation about addressing high levels of suicides in few communities in Pune.

While conducting home visits for Community Counselling, we visited a home where we spoke with one old person who was very drunk. He spoke for an hour, sharing his problems, thoughts and distress due to family conflict regarding the marriage of his daughters and his relationship with his wife. He shared how he lost a relative to suicide and that he is paralysed and had started drinking a month and a half ago. At the end of the conversation he felt good and invited us to visit him again.

During the follow up visit a week later, he shared that he had stopped drinking and expressed much more rational thought about his own needs from his daughters. We are continuing the counselling process in his home.

Case Study from Suicide Helpline Experience :
During the first Peer Educators Program session held at Dastur Girl’s School, a student shared that she was feeling distressed because she did not have many friends. She was being bullied by her friends due the way she looked. Her confidence as well as her performance in school had been deeply affected.

After three sessions of PEP she found herself with a group of peers who supported each other. She is now gaining confidence as she has found a space where she can belong.

Some changes observed after joining Connecting NGO (Feedback from PEP volunteer Dastur Girls School: class VIII A)

After attending the first session at Connecting, I felt good and realized that I had the quality of being a positive listener and would be able to help my friends with their problems if they were ready to confide in me. The Peer Education sessions conducted by Connecting helped me to tone down my tendency to give advice and to listen to the person in emotional distress. I learned that giving wrong advice or false hope to someone may even cause them to lose their life.

Another story from me : During the Christmas holidays I went to visit my sister. There she fought with our brother and our parents blamed her for it. In fact my sister and brother were both to be blamed, but our parents believed that it was my sister’s fault. She refused to eat her lunch or speak with me and was crying a lot. This irritated me a lot but I also empathised with her. After a while I took her out and told her that she could tell me whatever she wanted to and soon she started sharing her problems with me. I consulted with Connecting team to receive advice on how to deal with my sister’s problem and used the technique of non-advisory listening and showed that I cared. This worked very well and soon my sister was quite relaxed.

Lastly, I want to say , don’t forget SALT

S - Stimulate, Support
A - Appreciate
L - Listen
T - Team

If we remember SALT we can achieve anything we want to, with it.

The most important benefit of joining Connecting NGO for me has been, finding someone who really listens.

Changes in Volunteer after Connecting

Chart changes in students after PEP

Dastur Girls Session