How Compassion Transforms Mental Healthcare

Strategies for a kinder, more inclusive world

Pramita Sengupta | 26th November 2024

As a psychologist, I know that compassion is vital to the clients’ well-being in my care. They need to be welcomed into a nurturing and supportive environment – not only to tackle their own anxieties and worries but to help them shed the burden of the stigma and alienation they might face in society.

Although there has been progress towards improving the rights of individuals with psychological and psychiatric disorders, there is still much to do. We are far away from the comprehensive, compassionate system we need: one where every staff member, and leaders thread compassionate values into every interaction, decision, and process.?

Part of why that wait continues is because we have not yet been able to create a wider context of valuing compassion as a value and motive.?

Of course, creating that environment at an international level raises a fundamental question: how can we do this while allowing for regional, national, and local contexts and differences? How do we espouse a value while avoiding being top-down or cookie-cutter in our approach?

There is hope. Looking through the history of major religions and spiritual traditions, we find that compassion – often articulated as the “Golden Rule” – endures. It is, in fact, one of the defining features of most belief systems. Why? Because recognising common humanity is essential to the good functioning of a stable society. It simply would not have been possible for us to survive as a species in harsh conditions without mutual support and protection. And in the modern era, we depend on the capacity of others to care and share so that we can all thrive.?

And now is the ideal moment to be having these kinds of conversations across national boundaries and sectors. As we try to “build back” after COVID-19, manage the climate crisis, and address the rising tide of global conflict, we have to find ways of bridging increasing divides and actually coming together to solve the threats to humanity’s survival. Working out how we can live together peacefully in cooperative societies – societies whose resources are becoming ever more scarce – is the challenge of the 21st century. It is one, I believe, that compassion can address.?

I hope we do our best to inculcate compassion for ourselves and others and make the world a better living space.?

To sum up the ideas in the words of The Dalai Lama: “Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquillity and happiness we all seek.”

Reference: Sengupta, P., & Saxena, P. (2024). The art of compassion in mental healthcare for all: back to the basics. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 46(1), 72-77.

About Pramita: I am a Clinical Psychologist and a Research Scientist at NIMHANS, India. I am interested in the topic of Compassion Focused Therapy in India. I resonate with the idea of compassion both in personal and professional domains. Compassion is liberating and healing.