Youth care network

The YOUth Care Network (YCN) is a cohort of young people trained to provide psychosocial first aid to their peers as well as adolescents in their communities & networks. The timeline for YCN is August 2020 to February 2021.

The 21-member network was initiated and anchored by The YP Foundation (TYPF) to address the escalating mental stress among young people during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also aimed to address the lack of an overall understanding (especially the social aspect) of mental health & wellbeing leading to service gaps, stigma around conversations on mental health and inadequate programmes & policies within government systems.  

The network members received over 50 hours of intensive training conducted by iCALL, a national mental health helpline initiative housed at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. This equipped them with a comprehensive knowledge about a variety of themes (including mental health issues in the context of COVID-19, social determinants of mental health, queer affirmative psychosocial support etc.) around mental health & wellbeing and the necessary communication skills & response strategies to address the relevant needs & concerns; and an ability to provide psychosocial first aid to their peers by providing a non-judgemental, safe & supportive environment.

As part of the intervention, network members collated region specific resources & services around mental health & wellbeing, and took up phone based outreach and provided phone based psychosocial first aid to youth & adolescent callers. Network members connected callers to regional resources, or to further specialised support as required. The intervention collaborated with the national iCALL counselling helpline as a backup for escalating cases and making referrals.

Progress was monitored and the necessary professional guidance & support were provided to this cohort of YOUth Care Network through weekly check-in calls; which also catered to the mental health needs & concerns of these young people.

19 network members engaged in 400+ support calls over 16 weeks; with each network member receiving 3-6 calls/week, with each call lasting an hour long on an average. The support was provided in 12 regional languages apart from English & Hindi.

The support calls addressed a wide spectrum of concerns/issues like Academic/Career stress, Unemployment, Isolated at home/Feeling stuck, Conflict with parents/guardians, Substance abuse, Identity crisis, Grieving loss, Relationship issues, Feeling uncertain about their future, Anxiety, Depression, Mood disorders and Self-harm tendencies.

Support call highlights : 55.7% were new calls and 44.3% were follow-up calls, 71.1% were not COVID-19 related calls and 28.9% were COVID-19 related calls, referrals were provided to 16.8% of the callers.

The network members reported an increase in their skills & confidence to provide psychosocial support to other young people. They also appreciated the inclusion of intersectional issues such as youth friendliness, sexuality, community diversity, COVID-19 related stressors and the linkages between physical & mental health & wellbeing as central to the capacity & perspective building and the intervention overall. They also emphasized on the huge gap in the availability of information & services on mental health for young people and the high levels of stigma attached with support seeking that need to be addressed through similar interventions at a much larger scale.

YOUth Care Network Members :

Shirish, Madhya Pradesh
Charu Garg, Haryana
Krishna Damor, Gujarat
Kavita, Uttarakhand
Poorvaprabha Patil, Karnataka
Sajith James, Kerala
Mohammed Suhail, Karnataka
Neil Jaitly, Meghalaya
Ragini Bordoloi, Assam
Diana, Goa
Gurminder Singh, Punjab
Sreejesh O V, Kerala
Sangeetha, Tamil Nadu
Saduf Yousuf, Jammu and Kashmir
Vamsi Krishna Areti, Telangana
Arunida Khumukcham, Manipur
Sanjina Gupta, West Bengal
Sumit Pawar, Maharashtra
Dheerak Kumar Sharma, Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Shukti, Karnataka
Bhaumika Gupta, Haryana