"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
Minding the Mind by Mridula Seth is a first-hand experience guide that delves into the excitement and challenges of volunteering in mental health advocacy. It describes the silent sufferings of persons with mental illness (PMIs) and how they cope with self-stigma and negative social attitudes. It delineates problems faced by caregivers and their search for the rehabilitation facilities as a solution. There is need for such facilities, early diagnosis, and treatment of mental illnesses. Why are people reluctant to talk about their mental health problems? What are the challenges faced by NGOs running rehab facilities? Why is it difficult to get funds from the corporate sector for mental health?
Minding the Mind is a journey and a search for answers, for more questions to be raised, by Mridula Seth, an advocate for social causes, and a volunteer with an NGO running a halfway home for PMIs. The aim of this book is to bring more volunteers, especially the youth and caregivers, to serve as advocates to break the silence, and create an environment for advocacy on mental health.
Mridula Seth
Mridula Seth is a development communication professional who has teaching experience of 25 years at Lady Irwin College (Delhi University) and as a technical adviser (Adolescents & Youth) for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) India for nine years.
For over a decade, she has been actively volunteering, most recently as the director of a life skills project in a Juvenile Drug De-addiction and Rehab Centre for boys in conflict with the law. She has also worked for over three years as the secretary of the Richmond Fellowship Society (India), Delhi branch, focusing on persons suffering with mental illnesses. She continues to be actively involved in mental health advocacy.
Mridula Seth enjoys fostering partnerships between academic institutions and grassroots organisations, involving youth as advocates for mental health and substance abuse. She is a committed adult educator and an advocate for building life skills of all age groups as a continuous process of self-learning, empowerment, and self-actualisation. She is a former Fulbright post-doctoral research fellow and received the Tagore Literacy Award for her work. She published In Search of Self: A Journey Within, a collection of poems.
