It is important for practitioners to know the right approach when counselling grieving families. Ms. Sujatha Suriyamoorthi, Manager-Information Systems, MOHAN Foundation was invited to speak on “Counselling and approaching the grieving families for organ donation” at The Banyan Academy for Leadership in Mental Health (BALM), Chennai on 22^nd June 2017. The talk was for students pursuing their Masters in Applied Psychology.

Mr. Veerapandian, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Applied Psychology introduced Ms. Sujatha to the students. She divided the lecture into two parts, she first introduced the concept of organ donation and transplantation by giving an overview on the medical, legal and ethical and belief aspects.

Through this she was able to move on to the second part of her talk, as it helped students understand the sensitivity of the issue. She explained on the stages of grief, counselling process, the characteristics and skills of a counsellor, when and how to approach the families for organ donation. She conducted activities which helped the students understand the various life situations one is faced with.  A few case studies were also shared.

The students asked queries on organ allocation, the need for organs and how many people are aware about the concept of organ donation. Around 40 students attended the programme.