Delhi Cares

Background

The past year has been very tough due to COVID especially for children. All school-going children have been cooped up in their homes and several have lost loved ones. Lack of psycho-social support, particularly in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, has left many children isolated in their homes, which may result in mental health issues including anxiety, depression, among others.

There are several children who have been orphaned as a result of losing both their parents, Delhi Government is documenting all such cases and providing the required support. Even these kids need long term mental health support.

Providing Counseling to Delhi Children

Children can benefit immensely from consistent psycho-social support, through trained professionals addressing their concerns and assisting them to work through it. This would create a safe space for all children and help them better cope with the challenges of the pandemic.

DCPCR (Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights) has initiated a mental health initiative that was launched in June 2020 for school students who have been impacted by COVID-19 and are under mental stress. This was done in collaboration with Sangath (NGO) in order to provide them with the requisite professional counseling support. Sangath maps each case of mental distress in children to their counselors who then provide tele-counseling support to these students. The results of this initiative have been very promising and need to be scaled up. We would like to set up a mental health support unit with a required number of counsellors, therapists and other experts where children can reach out for psycho-social support.

Project Start Date and Duration: The project shall begin in September 2021 and would be an ongoing engagement.