Next Steps for 3HO SuperHealth – India

For those who love and miss me, don’t read this section as “next steps for ME in India”. I am coming home soon!

We really have three things going on. First, we are running the pilot program with up to 10 clients; second, we are documenting that program in a way that it can become a training manual, usable by KRI as part of its teacher Training processes. Third, we are attempting to lay the groundwork for growing the program, for 3HO SuperHealth to become a significant force for ameliorating the substance abuse problem in Northern India.

There are 3 proposals for the future on the table. All are interconnected; some are easy to get started; some are vast in scope and difficult to imagine.

The easiest is to simply train current mental health professionals, psychiatrists mostly, to do the program. This is what the government medical folks would like us to do. They have envisioned teams in each district going through a process; something like this: We begin with a 1 day conference, a kind of extended workshop to introduce these folks to what we are doing, give them some experience of some of the techniques (yoga and meditation), and leave them wanting more. This would be mandatory for the gov’t employees and available to the private practice doctors. The next step would be to offer those who want more, a series of weekend workshops (called yoga camps here) organized around specific topics. We would want these to be available to clients who have graduated from the program as well. Next would come a teacher training course, at Indian prices, finally specialized training in the SuperHealth program. The last two training would be several weeks long and residential programs. There are several potential problems with this plan, but it is easy to get started and each step contained and imaginable.

The Second idea we are calling the Panchayat Program. Panchayats are elected officials (usually 5) at the village level. They settle disputes, collect taxes. They are kind of like village elders. In this plan, non-professionals would be trained at the village level. Their role would a kind of out reach, prevention, education, referral service. This would be the biggest project, the most difficult to fully think through and the one with potentially the greatest impact on transforming a society that is in big trouble due to drug abuse.

The third Idea is an autonomous clinic, run by 3HO SuperHealth, a five star clinic. This has the greatest potential for generating revenue and is the most satisfying for the staff here to think about.