After losing his friend, he’s training suicide gatekeepers

BENGALURU: He lost his friend when he was in college in 1999 and since then, he has been working to stop others from committing suicide. That’s how the

city-based

Suicide Prevention India Foundation (SPIF) came into existence.

Nelson Vinod Moses

founded SPIF in September 2017 to

train suicide gatekeepers

, who can play a key role in preventing suicides by recognising early signs, providing necessary intervention and providing access to mental health services.

“I lost my friend when he was 25. He had spoken to me just two days before he took the extreme step. I had even booked an appointment with a psychiatrist for him. But he hanged himself before we could meet the doctor,” said Nelson, who sold his car to set up SPIF.

SPIF has tied up with Washington-based QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) Institute, the global leader in suicide prevention training, and inked a memorandum of understanding to introduce a slew of suicide prevention training programmes in India. He aims to train 25,000 gatekeepers and 150 gatekeeper instructors across the country in 2018-19 through an online training programme.

As per research, in a majority of cases, suicide is preventable. The WHO recommends a multi-pronged strategy for suicide prevention, including a national suicide prevention policy, public awareness drives, community-based interventions and gatekeeper training.

While gatekeepers are a fairly simple and cost-effective way to prevent suicide, there are less than 1,000 trained gatekeepers in India compared to millions in USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, added Nelson.

In the past two weeks, SPIF has trained over 100 gatekeepers in Bengaluru. “I took it up as a social cause. Before attending the course, I had no clue that even a common man like me can save a person from committing suicide. But now I believe it’s possible for me to identify and help a vulnerable person,” said Keshavan Balasubramanian, an engineer with a city-based MNC, who was recently trained by SPIF.

— Keziah Grace