Suicide Prevention India Foundation (SPIF),founded in September 2017, is dedicated to mitigating the mental health crisis across India.
It was incubated at Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bengaluru, India (top management institute in India) and has partnered with QPR Institute.
I attended an Academic Writing Workshop organised by Internal Quality Assurance Cell of Lady Shriram College for Women, Delhi between 19 February to 05 March 2022.
This workshop was convened by Dr Megha Dhillon, Assistant Professor in Department of Psychology, LSR. She is an accomplished person in Psychology with numerous papers, book chapters, research projects, papers/posters presented apart from talks/conducting workshops.
The workshop was a three session series aimed to enhance writing skills among undergraduate students.
I connected with SPIF to provide me research opportunities. SPIF tasked me to compile research about protective factors for suicide among India’s youth, with a focus on LGBTQ+ youth between 19 April – 19 May 2022.
I started gathering information about protective factors for suicide among India’s youth, which was sparsely available in the public domain. More so for LGBTQ+ youth. Under the guidance of SPIF team, I went about contacting LGBTQ+ NGOs and requested them to share information of youth suicides in the community. Though many were not forthcoming, my tireless efforts over weeks yielded response. I grounded the research around qualitative factors.
I identified the protective factors as Religion, social support, academic achievement, problem-solving skills and optimism in the Indian context. Access to mental healthcare, impulse control, resilience and responsibility were identified as protective factors in the Western context. I recommended that the effect of better access to mental healthcare for people with suicidal tendencies is to be explored further for LGBTQ+ youth in India.