“It is not like there’s a complete dearth of Mental Health practitioners but they are all scattered. Everyone’s working in their own little ways to cater to the needs of people and run awareness campaigns but after a certain point its impact diminishes. A small group of people can only accomplish so much, we need more patrons. Our aim is to join these forces together and create a ripple effect. We believe in collaboration, not competition and we keep looking for opportunities to work with people who support this cause” mentions Amit Panwar, the founder of Power Within (www.powerwithin.in), an organization working extensively in the field of Mental Health Awareness and Training Programs.
With this thought in mind, he along with Vishal Goyal started Power Within– an organization meant to address the gaps in the prevailing mental health system together with an intent of making mental health services accessible to all. The team consists of highly motivated and a young bunch of psychologists, trainers, mental health professionals and educators who are consistently working in bringing the vision of the organization to life.
The organization is also set out to spread awareness about creating safe spaces where people can talk about their mental health struggles as comfortably as they do about their physical health issues. This they believe would somewhere also help to reduce the stigma attached to mental health that is still quite pertinent in today’s times.
A widely growing concern in today’s age is people’s deteriorating mental health.
Technological aids might have made the luxuries cheaper but it is costing us our sanity. The perpetual pressure of always looking perfect, and in line with the latest trends as portrayed in social media marks the beginning of a self-sabotaging vicious cycle. Needless to say, youth becomes its prime target.
India, which is set to become the country with the highest youth population by 2021 is also treading its way to becoming one having increased cases of depression coming to light (According to current ranking India is third with respect to prevalence and reporting of depression cases).
To create awareness and generate understanding about these and other concerns surrounding mental health, Power Within is organizing its first Mental Health Festival in collaboration with India Excellence Forum and Gautam Buddha University on 13th October 2019 in GBU campus on the theme of Suicide Prevention. This theme has been proposed by WHO in honor of the World Mental Health Day for this year. Through the festival, the team is bringing people from all walks of life with varied professional background to have stimulating discussions on the ecology of suicide prevention.
Within a short span of time the Power Within team has been able to deliver over 130 workshops on topics like stress management, personality enhancement, effective communication skills and interpersonal skills, worked with around 40 organizations ranging from schools, Colleges to Corporates and skill centres enabling lives of approx. 10,000 students, employees and candidates. Some of the programmes offered by Power Within are AAROGYA for dynamic resilience building, YOUNGPRENEURS for building entrepreneurs for future, YOUNIQUE, a career counselling and behavioural training programme and BEING BRAVE- a mental fitness and well-being programme that focuses on normalising the talk around mental health by using personal narratives of the survivors in their own words.
All along their path the team has aimed to integrate the vision they had set out for. This vision has also been a significant aspect contributing to the emergence of this idea of the Mental Health Festival. With young students, policymakers, academicians, artists, influencers and other audiences all under one roof, the aim is to create an open and opportune space for some intellectually enriching and socially valuable takeaways for one and all.
To register for the MENTAL HEALTH FESTIVAL 2019, contact on the following mail.To extend support to Mental Health Initiatives or to reach out to them, you can contact them at info@powerwithin.in
