SAHAI - SUICIDE PREVENTION HELPLINE

• SAHAI Suicide Prevention Helpline, run by the Medico-Pastoral Association was started in 2002. The inception of SAHAI was a tripartite collaboration between the Medico-Pastoral Association, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) and the Rotary Club Bangalore East. The SAHAI helpline was born in 2002. During those days, Dr Gururaj, the then head of the Department of Epidemiology at NIMHANS, was conducting awareness campaigns and awareness programs for preventing suicide across Karnataka state, especially in schools and colleges. Dr Gururaj had the plan of starting a helpline to prevent the suicides which were happening not only across the state but all across the country. And this idea was brought to the managing committee of MPA by Dr. Mohan Isaac who was a colleague and friend of Dr. Gururaj.  The helpline came into effect when MPA was ready to provide the location/space for the helpline at MPA premises. MPA was also glad to identify, train and provide volunteers to run the helpline. A team of psychiatrists from NIMHANS and many psychiatrist friends of MPA helped to train the volunteers. The rotary club provided the required finances to meet the expenses for the helpline during the initial years.

   

  Today, at SAHAI Suicide Prevention Helpline, there are 22 trained volunteers as well as counsellors to address the calls from distressed. The volunteers belong to different backgrounds and a few of them are doctors, engineers, psychologists. The helpline, operational since 2002, works in three shifts from 10 am to 5.30 pm, having three slots, from 10 am to 12:30 pm, 12:30 pm to 3 pm and 3 pm to 5:30 pm. The helpline includes volunteers who are multilingual and can speak various languages such as Hindi, English, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. Over the years there have been periodical training programmes for new volunteers and refresher training for continuing volunteers to keep them updated in the field. 

   

  Contact No. 08025497777

  Timing: 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.