Mental health is something which is talked about regularly but only a few who pay attention with the intention to understand. I would like to explain it in simple words: mental health concerns your emotional health which can be determined by the effects of daily hassles and how you react/respond to it. Daily events may be small and maybe irrelevant to the eyes of an outsider but can trigger unknown and deep seated emotions. This makes it tough for others to understand us and thus disable their ability to help us in an emotionally intelligent manner.

That's where the role as Emotional First Aid Responder comes into play. At Praan, individuals are trained under the First Responders Program where they are given training to handle individuals going through distress and provide them emotional support . First responders give you a non-judgemental safe space to vent out, this line implies that a first responder would not judge you for your behavior or experience but would understand and empathize with you ; safe space signifies complete confidentiality of information that has been shared in confidence. First responders also can identify the best way to support you and further identify individuals and/or organizations to help. But why am I talking about trained volunteers? Why are they important?

Emotional First Aid Responders (aka Volunteers) are trained to help you out during times of distress by empowering you. They are important and extremely relevant in this fast paced world. As we were discussing a little while ago, there can be individual differences and not everyone would understand you the way you want, therefore if we have more volunteers from different age groups, ethnicities, professions and other diversities, it would  be helpful  in understanding what people across the spectrum of life go through, therefore increasing the empathy quotient of all individuals as a society. This would help individuals in distress and they will know that they are not alone and there's a way to overcome it. Moreover, it would also help in raising the right awareness in the field of mental health. 

Being a First Responder, I learned how individual differences make us unique and also the fact that these individual differences can play to our strength as a society.