Profugo Counseling Center – Bringing Hope

Profugo Counseling Center, which started at Profugo Development Initiatives (PDI) in August 2014, has become a source of hope to many people in distress- especially young people- in the Prashanthagiri community. These days many people visit PDI to get help on their psychosocial needs. The majority of the clients attending our service are students between the ages of 10 to 20 years old. Some of the problems faced by them include emotional problems, behavioral problems, learning disabilities, hyper activity, and different types of phobias.

Many of the youngsters who attend our center have a poor self-image. In many ways their family situations play a crucial role in causing them such great distress. For instance, alcoholism is a serious problem faced by the families in the area. Indiscriminate consumption of alcohol by the father brings adverse impacts to the whole family, and women and children often become the victims. Much of the family income is used for alcohol, and as a result these homes are stricken with severe poverty. Quarrel is a common incident that often ends in physical violence. Wife and children battering are common, and children are therefore unable to attend school regularly. Their lives become stressful; gradually, they begin to internalize a negative attitude, which adversely affects their whole personality.

We hold interventions that are based on enhancing the skills and efficiency of the clients, in an effort to help them to effectively cope with the challenges of everyday life (i.e. the effects of alcoholism). By applying different strategies, we aim to help them improve their capacity for decision-making, critical thinking, interpersonal relationships, etc. We give importance to their self-explorations, endeavoring to help them manage their emotional and behavioral problems in a healthy way.

The Profugo Counseling Center is not only helping students and teenagers, but it also caters to the adult members of the community who are in need of psychosocial support. During the center’s inception, we had a poor response from the adult population, which was possibly due to an ignorance about our counseling process; however, we are now gradually receiving enquiries from people from all different walks of life. So far we have done three counseling sessions for the adult community members, a large improvement from our youth-centered beginnings.

As a second step in our mental health intervention, we organize different programs in PDI with the aim to promote mental health awareness. Recently we hosted a mental health awareness program, which was led by Dr. Linjo, a Clinical Psychologist from Louis Mount hospital in Chennalod, Wayanad. Additionally, every second Saturday we have a one-day training at the center for our youth club members, each time bringing in different outside experts and giving training on different life skill areas.

The inadequacy of sufficient mental health resources in the region is a challenge to the community. There are no additional counseling centers or facilities in the area that promote mental health activities. Therefore, we believe our center has a great role to play. As a result, schools in the nearby areas have begun inviting PDI field staff to give training to the students on various life skills. Mental health problems are common in India, especially among the general adolescent population. Early detection and effective intervention will result in the wholesome development of our future generations. Our Counseling Center has proven to be an effective first step, with even greater hopes for the future.