An inquiry into the Enablers of ‘Human Response Capacity’ in Individuals and Communities during instances of Mental Distress in India

Mental health challenges affect a significant number of people globally. Technical solutions promote cure and healing. Parallelly, inclusion of the affected individuals and neighbourhoods in the solution is critical for addressing mental health stigma, utilising community competencies, building ownership and promoting sustainable solutions. Human capacity for response theory and the SALT (Support / Appreciate / Listen / Team) approach offers a framework to understand and utilise the inherent strengths of people. Volunteers are a useful resource, who offer their time and skills to address challenges. This research attempts to understand the coping mechanisms of communities facing mental health challenges, the use of the SALT approach by organisations to promote coping in communities, and implications of the SALT approach for volunteers. Case study method and thematic analysis was used to study three cases of 1) communities affected by drug use in Aizawl 2) suicides in Pune and 3) floods in Kochi, in India. The study reveals a nuanced response of stigma, ownership, connections for healing, and the role of spirituality by affected people; role of SALT in promoting acknowledgement, human connectedness, healing, and motivation to support others in similar distress; and the need to understand the motivation of volunteers and invest in their training and self-care, for sustained volunteering. This study illuminates the potential of communities to be a part of the solution, need for listening and community building - alongside technical support - by organisations, and importance of investing in capacity building of volunteers.