Deepika Padukone interacts with mental health patients in Tamil Nadu village, calls visit overwhelming. See pics
Deepika Padukone joined the team of her mental health foundation Live Love Laugh as they visited a village in Tamil Nadu to meet mental health patients.
Deepika Padukone proudly spoke about the work that her mental health foundation Live Love Laugh has done in rural areas as she penned a note on World Mental Health Day on October 10. Ahead of the occasion, Deepika paid a visit to rural areas in Tamil Nadu's Thiruvallaur, and interacted with mental health patients, as well as their caregivers, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), and ASHA workers. Also Read| Deepika Padukone attends Paris Fashion Week show with parents; fans react
Deepika took to her Instagram account on Monday to share pictures from her visit. Tagging the Instagram page of her foundation, the actor wrote about her visit, "Since our inception, we have been relentless in our efforts to improve the lives of those experiencing mental illness, as well as the lives of their caregivers. Expanding our rural outreach program to Tamil Nadu is one more important step towards making mental health care accessible and affordable for all."
The pictures saw Deepika interacting with caregivers, and paying visits to the houses of the foundation's beneficiaries. One of the pictures showed her having tea in a paper cup with her team among others. In another picture, she held the hand of a woman as she wiped her tears with her saree.
Several more pics and videos from the two-day visit were shared on the foundation's Instagram page. One video from the first day of the tour showed her asking someone to 'study hard, study well.' She said about her visit, "Definitely overwhelming. Makes you realise that there's so much more work to be done."
Her voiceover in a video from the second day of the visit said, "It's been five years since our first rural visit. We met someone today where in the last 6 months, their life has changed. When you hear these stories first hand, is when you feel like absolutely everything that we are doing and of course, with the support of our donors, it all comes together, and gives it all meaning and purpose."
Deepika Padukone launched her foundation, Live Love Laugh, after revealing in an interview in 2015 that she battled depression a year prior to it and sought professional help after her mom noticed the signs. In a recent interview with NDTV, she said about her mom Ujjwala Padukone and her sister Anisha Padukone, "Even in my personal journey, the role of the caregiver has been extremely important that's why my mother is here, that's why my sister has been so passionately part of this cause for many years and also therefore when I hear the stories of the caregivers."