Caring for emotional and mental health in Auroville

The World Health Organization defines health not just as the absence of disease, but as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, where mental health also includes emotional and psychological well-being. Our health affects our daily lives. Not only do ailments prevent us from going about our day, but mental health also affects how we think, feel, and act. A state of mental health allows people to realise their potential, make meaningful contributions to society and also work productively.

Auroville’s Institute for Integral Health (also known as Santé and the Integral Health Service) is a step forward towards true holistic care for Aurovilians. It has adopted the recently emerging health care model called the integrative practice of medicine and aims to create an effective health care system. To address the psychosocial elements of our community, and particularly mental health, additional strengthening is needed. Apart from the serious cases of mental health, there are also quite a number of community members in need of mental, emotional or psychological support who are not being cared for.

Today, the difficult decisions regarding concerns over fellow Aurovilians with detrimental mental and emotional health often fall on the table of the Auroville Council and the Working Committee. This is because there is not a coordinated and steady group of Aurovilians who dedicate themselves solely to this aspect of community service. These two working groups regularly hold joint meetings where difficult decisions are taken regarding the health of community members who are going through challenging times, emotionally, mentally, or psychologically. At the moment, there is no policy in place regarding how the Auroville health system deals with serious and less serious cases of mental health or psychological or emotional disturbance. This results in an ad hoc approach. Sometimes, psychiatric doctors from outside are consulted. Besides this, there is a resource pool of Aurovilians who are called upon for their expertise.

“The topic of mental health came to the table of the Auroville Council with an idea from Friederike,” says Sandyra, “after which she was invited to gather energy from the community on this topic. This led to a presentation of the idea at a healer’s meeting that I attended. At the same time, Inge from the Working Committee was also actively becoming engaged in the topic. So shortly after having met with her and joining our forces to develop a group dedicated to this, the idea took more shape. Jerry, a Dutch clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, started his Newcomer period and offered his help. As he also has experience as an organizational psychologist who was involved in organizing and developing healthcare in the Netherlands, it was obvious that we now have a good person to help carry on this project. The recently formed pilot group’s envisioned approach towards integral mental health will be shared soon by the group.”

Sandyra and I sat together at Well Café for lunch a few months ago after finding out that mental health in Auroville was a topic on the agendas of both the Working Committee and the Auroville Council. Since then, both of us have been working on what a group dedicated to this aspect of health in Auroville could look like and how it could function. We thought about bringing our concerns to Santé or Auroville Health Centre, but then decided to try and form something new. We developed a proposal and a draft policy which we shared with our two respective working groups. Soon after we invited concerned Aurovilians for a discussion about the topic, and the pilot group for Emotional and Mental Health was born.

What excites me about this initiative is that the pilot group is starting at the beginning and can shape the scope of the group and find the best people to be a part of it. I would like to see the group grow and figure out the priorities that our community faces in this regard. After all, the people who work in this field are the best qualified to make well-informed and experience-based decisions.

Sigrid, a long-time Auroville therapist, is part of the pilot group. She shares: “Emotional and mental health is a challenge for change, growth, integration, and transformation. Dr. Pandey will show us his spiritual approach in the light of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. I am grateful that he is willing to share his knowledge and insights with us.”